25 Dec 2013

A very wet Christmas: thousands of homes without power

Thousands of people face the Christmas period without electricity after storms and heavy rain caused widespread flooding and power failures across the UK.

Fifty thousand homes across the UK are still without power, the Energy Networks Association said.

With many families’ turkey dinner ruined, major power company UK Power Networks is offering to pay for Christmas meals in local pubs or restaurants for people whose supplies remain cut off.

Flood alerts

The Environment Agency has two severe warnings in place in England and Wales – the highest level of alert, which means there is a danger to life.

Firefighters broke their strike in parts of England because of the storms.

Members of the Fire Brigades Union in Surrey and Kent were recalled to duty under the terms of an agreement between the union, the employers and the Government.

In the early hours, around 90 people were evacuated from their homes on the River Stour near Bournemouth.

Police began to evacuate residents of the Ilford Bridge Home Park shortly after 3am following a severe flood warning from the Environment Agency (EA).

They were taken to the Boscombe Day Centre in Owl Road, Boscombe, Dorset Police said.

People were also evacuated from the Beaulieu Garden Park Home in Christchurch, Dorset.

The Coastguard joined Kent Fire and Rescue Service to rescue people from the Little Venice Caravan and Marina Park in Yalding after rising waters from the River Medway cut them off.

By 8pm the water was chest-deep, the Coastguard said, and a helicopter was brought in as a precaution while the last 21 people were led to safety from rising flood waters and listing caravans.

The EA had 126 flood warnings across England and Wales this morning, mainly in the South East, the South West and the Midlands.

A further 218 flood alerts were also in place, with 90 in the South East alone.

The EA said that by last night 150 properties had been flooded in England, mainly in the south and focused in Surrey and Kent.

Thousands evacuated

In Surrey residents were evacuated from their homes in Dorking, Leatherhead and Guildford, while more evacuations occurred in Tonbridge, Kent.

Some 40 properties were evacuated in Godalming because of concerns over the height of the River Wey, Surrey Police said, and a rest centre was set up for residents.

Kirk Waite, a forecaster at the Met Office, said today would be “much quieter” weather-wise.

He said: “We do have a few showers around and they could be heavy at times, and some of them might bring more hail, which will give a whiteness to things.”

Mr Waite said the storm coming on Friday is not expected to be as severe as we have already had.

He did say there would be quite heavy amounts of rain, which would bring “additional problems” to the places already dealing with floods.