Flood water ‘will keep rising’

A spell of fine weather with lighter winds and less rain is expected for the the next five days, but parts of southern, south-west and central England remain at risk of flooding due to high river levels after weeks of heavy rainfall.

The Prime Minister, who chaired the government’s Cobra emergency committee on Saturday night, said: “Thankfully, it does appear that we will see less rain and wind over the next few days.

“However, after so much rain over recent weeks, groundwater levels remain very high and in many places will continue to rise.”

Paul Leinster, chief executive of the Environment Agency (EA), said: “Despite an improving forecast, the risk of flooding will continue for many communities in southern parts of England over the next few days.

“We ask people to remain vigilant and take action where necessary.”

Storm deaths

The comments came after two people died during storms on Friday.

James Swinstead, 85, died “almost instantly” after a wave crashed through a window on the British cruise ship Marco Polo in the English Channel.

Read more: witness tells of cruise ship horror

And minicab driver Julie Sillitoe, 49, was killed after her car was hit by falling masonry in Holborn, central London.

A 20-year-old pregnant woman and her unborn baby, from Tredegar, South Wales, also died in a crash on the A465 between Brynmawr and Garnlydan.

Firefighter Clifford Cox, 53, died while on duty of an apparent heart attack in flood-hit Staines on Saturday night, although it is unclear if there was any link to the storms.

The EA has 16 severe flood warnings in place for the South West and the Thames Valley, with almost 150 flood warnings and 230 flood alerts.

Power back on

Almost one million homes have been without power after downpours and high winds during the last week.

The Energy Networks Association said fewer than 16,000 homes remained without electricity on Sunday after engineers restored power to 15,000 customers overnight, and more than 600,000 have been reconnected since the storms on Friday.

EA chairman Lord Smith admitted he “could have done better” during the flooding crisis and said the country needs to take a “serious look” at how it prepares for more extreme weather.

He told LBC Radio: “I think there are certainly some things that I could have done better.

“I think we could and should have worked harder to persuade partner organisations in Somerset to undertake some of the longer term work that’s needed down there which we were wanting to start last year but we weren’t able to get the other bits of money that we needed on to the table.

“Now, we need to have a serious look as a country at how we prepare ourselves for that and how we build our flood defences.”

‘Stop building on flood plains’ calls

Mark Wilson, chief executive of insurance giant Aviva, said there should be a halt to building on “defenceless” flood plains.

He told the Sunday Telegraph: “As a nation we need to build more homes, but the cost of development must include the cost of defences. Let’s be crystal clear: no defences, no development.”

Lord Krebs, the climate change committee chairman, told the Sunday Times: “We are still slapping up homes and business properties in flood plain areas.

“We’ve adopted the build-and-defend approach in the past and we need an honest assessment. Is build and defend the right way, or do we say we will stop building homes in flood risk areas, we’ll just build elsewhere?”