6 Dec 2015

130 flood warnings; month’s worth of rain falls in 24 hours

There has already been one fatality in London as the effects of Storm Desmond tore through Britain, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to parts of Scotland and northern England.

The UK Environment Agency has made 130 flood warnings this weekend as Storm Desmond wreaks havoc across Britain, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that caused the country of Cumbria to declare a major incident.

Yet Storm Desmond’s power was not just felt in northern parts: in London on Saturday, a Scotland Yard spokesman said that a 90-year-old man died after being blown into the side of a moving bus by a strong gust of wind near Finchley Central Tube station in London.

The rain continued to fall over the weekend in Scotland, northern England and northern parts of Wales, with forecasters predicting that the rain will continue through Sunday. Some parts of Britain have seen more than a month’s worth of rain in the last 24 hours.

Channel 4 News weather presenter Liam Dutton said that the rain will start to ease and clear southwards by around dawn on Sunday morning, leaving a drier, brighter day on Sunday with lighter winds.

Cumbria was among the worst affected by Storm Desmond’s onslaught, with the village of Braithwaite becoming completely cut off when its main bridge collapsed after the river burst its banks. Electricity North West said another 4,000 properties were without power across Cumbria.

Flooding in Carlisle

The British Red Cross has now set up rest centres in Keswick, Appleby and Kendal.

Our chief correspondent, Alex Thomson, was in Appleby-in-Westmorland yesterday and is now in the small village of Eamont Bridge in Cumbria. Here are his latest tweets on the flooding situation in the area – you can follow him @alextomo