New year revellers should ‘take brollies and macs’

Tens of thousands of homes were left without power over Christmas after severe flooding and weather (image: Getty)

As swathes of the country struggle to rebuild after floods and storms wreaked havoc over the Christmas period, forecasters have issued another round of severe weather warnings.

The Environment Agency (EA) warned of a risk of further floods as rain continues to pour on saturated grounds and rivers that are already close to bursting their banks. New year’s eve revellers “should take an umbrella and a mac”, Dan Williams, spokesman for the Met Office, said.

Strong winds and heavy rain predicted for new year’s eve could disrupt train services run by Virgin, Arriva Trains Wales and ScotRail.

News of more bad weather came as doubts were cast over claims that engineers had restored power to the last homes which had been cut off following the Christmas storms.

‘Reconnected’

Tens of thousands of homes across the south east of England, north Wales and Cumbria were left without electricity last week following storm damage, and the Energy Networks Association tweeted last night: “Engineers have this evening reconnected those who lost power due to the severe weather damage.”

However, Alexandr Prisyazhnyuk, 41, a father of three who lives three miles north of Canterbury, was still without power today after trees fell on the cables connecting his home to the grid two days before Christmas.

He said he was “waiting for a miracle” and felt ignored after he saw the reports that all homes had been reconnected. “I call UK Power every two hours and haven’t had any response from them,” he said.

The EA said today that staff had been out in rivers clearing away debris to prepare for a deluge of rain expected later this week.

‘Heavy rain’

Yellow weather warnings of heavy rain have been issued for the south and south west of England for new year’s day, and there are 119 flood alerts in place in southern, western and northern England.

The Met Office said that the latest storm pushing in from the Atlantic will cross the UK from west to east today.

A severe weather warning was issued as strong gales of up to 80mph affecting Wales, southern, western and northern England and Scotland are expected.

The Met Office has also warned of the danger of ice patches in the south west tonight as temperatures drop to below freezing.

It will be wet and windy on New Year’s Day. Dan Williams, Met Office

Mr Williams said that although the current wet and windy weather will clear throughout the day, a band of rain will push across from north to south on new year’s eve.

Conditions are expected to be drier and brighter in the afternoon, he said, showers are set to return in the evening.

In the early hours of new year’s day, Mr Williams added, a low pressure system will bring rain to the whole of the country.

“There will be some fairly brisk winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour along western exposed coasts and 30 to 40 miles per hour inland. It will be wet and windy on New Year’s Day,” Mr Williams said.

By Thursday, the low pressure rain band is expected to clear, though winds may return on Friday.

‘Slow response’

Energy companies have been criticised for their slow response to restoring power, days after the storms hit. Last week, David Cameron was ambushed by angry residents in Yalding, Kent. In a heated exchange, Erica Olivares, 49, told the prime minister that no help had been offered by the council because “they have all decided to go on holiday”.

This morning, Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, said that he has pressed energy companies to stop staff from taking new year holidays amid the threat of further storms.

He told ITV’s Daybreak: “Quite clearly some of the power companies let their customers down badly. It seems obvious at this stage that they let too many of their staff go away for the Christmas holiday, they didn’t have enough people manning the call centres and that wasn’t acceptable.

“We have had bad weather overnight and we are looking to more bad weather unfortunately on new year’s day, new year’s night.

“We made it very clear at Cobra yesterday – we do expect the power companies and we also expect those local councils that did not perform that they have adequate staff to cater with what I am afraid may be more difficult times and more flooding.”