17,000 acres of land are still underwater a month after the flooding began. The council is providing support to affected residents, including temporary toilets, sandbag collection points in local villages and deliveries to the most stranded properties.
It has provided around 3,000 sandbags in the last few weeks. The council is also on standby to provide alternative temporary accommodation and set up rest centres if the situation gets worse.
Many people are still stranded. Many are now complaining that if The Environment Agency have dredged the rivers, the extent of the flooding would have been reduced. Meanwhile, The Environment Agency is continuing to pump water from the Somerset Levels and has extra pumps working on Northmoor and Saltmoor. Management strategies
Somersethas set up a “tactical command group” to deal with the flooding emergency declared in the area.
The group will include representative from the emergency services, local authorities, health organisations and utilities and will use their expertise and knowledge to tackle the issues that have arisen.
Devon and Cornwall Fire Service crews have been deployed in four wheel drive vehicles and rescue boats to provide safety advice to residents and map access routes across the affected areas.
Villagers who have been cut off from the rest of the country by floods for more than three weeks have received help from a floating bridge.
The pontoon has been set up along a country road linking the village of Muchelney to the rest of Somerset. The bridge allows villagers to walk part of the journey to dry land, however, the rest has to be completed by boat. Muchelney has been inaccessible by car and foot since 2 January 2014. Some parts of the surrounding area are 5 feet underwater.
What does it mean when a ‘major incident’ is declared?
A major incident is declared where there is a situation which could not be dealt with easily by the local council and could threaten lives, disrupt the community or damage property. It means the local authority can organise emergency evacuations, set up rest centres and mobilise voluntary organisations.
The biggest pumping operation ever is under way on the Somerset Levels, but much of the water is going into already swollen rivers. Seven tonnes of water are being pumped away from the villageof Fordgate in Somerset every second, according to an Environment Agency spokesman.
More homes on the Somerset Levels are facing flooding as water levels continue to rise, ahead of further predicted heavy rainfall this weekend.
The bad weather and flooding has left many farms covered by floodwater. In Somerseta lot of productive farmland has been lost, with more than 43 square miles flooded
24 December 2013 Strong winds and heavy rain has caused much disruption for home-owners and travellers trying to get home for the Christmas break. Rivers, already swollen have been unable to cope in many areas, flooding roads, railway lines, homes and businesses. CAUSE OF THE DISRUPTION
For guidance on how to read synoptic charts like this one above – click here
The Met Office at Boscombe Down, Salisbury Plain, recorded 66.7 mm of rain in the 24 hours from 9 am on the 23 December to 9 am on the 24 December. This is new all time daily record (provisional) in any month for the station – since records began in January 1931.
A Low pressure record breaker: In Stornoway, in NW Scotland. a pressure reading of 936.4mb was recorded at 12:30 pm on 24th December 2013. This is the lowest recorded anywhere in the UK since December 1886!
Depression – a low pressure weather system Explainer from the Met Office here:
The London Fire Brigade says it received five times the usual number of emergency 999 calls – 853 in total – on Monday night.
The severe weather caused disruption at some airports. At Gatwick, a power cut at the north terminal left several thousand passengers stranded, with delays and 26 flights cancelled.
Network Rail reported that the damage caused by the severe weather was “even more extensive” than that inflicted by St Jude’s storm in October.
The Environment Agency had almost 370 flood warnings and alerts in force on 24 December.
Source – Environment Agency
Fire crews rescued one adult and three children from a car stuck in floodwater on the A303 in Podimore, near Yeovil, Somerset. Two fire appliances and the rescue tender as well as a specialist rescue team led them to safety using an inflatable powered boat and dry suits.
Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said about 12 properties, including shops in the Bath Road area of Bradford-on-Avon, had been affected by flooding and they had closed the town centre bridge – the main route through the town.
Bradford on Avon – 24 December 2013
Chippenham – via Twitter (unable to find original photo for acknowledgement)
View of the River Avon – Chippenham via @southers81 on Twitter
View across fields near Monkton Park – Chippenham via@adamczuk on Twitter
The River Mole in Surrey burst its banks in several areas and an Environment Agency severe flood warning – which means a danger to life – was issued for Leatherhead.
Sainsburys in Tonbridge – Kent
The scene in Guildford as the River Wey flooded
Flooding on the River Medway in Kent
26 December 2013
The Environment Agency and the Met Office have warned of further significant rainfall and flooding in parts of southern Englandwith heavy rain and high winds forecast across the UK on Thursday evening and into Friday morning.
Source – Met Office
Many rivers are still swollen after the storms and ground saturated which led to power cuts and travel delays causing concern that any additional rain will lead to more significant flooding.
About 1,000 homes in south-east and south-west England have been flooded.
Some 13,000 properties still have no power and engineers say some may not be reconnected until the end of the week.
Sources: BBC News; BBC Weather; Daily Mail; Wiltshire Times; Twitter; The Environment Agency; Channel 4 News; AJEnglish; ITV News; Sky News; The Guardian; The Met Office; theweatheroutlook
Exceptional weather conditions, coupled with an inability to warn people, meant that whole communities were unaware of the imminent threat from the devastating storm surge that saw many low lying areas of East Anglia and the Thames Estuary suffer severe flooding.
The Atlantic storm, which brought the coastal flooding and gale-force winds of up to 100mph, caused widespread disruption across the UK and claimed the lives of two men – in West Lothian, Scotland, and in Retford, Nottinghamshire.
The Environment Agency said 800,000 homes in England had been protected by flood defences and better forecasting had given people “vital time” to prepare.
The agency said sea levels had peaked at 5.8m (19ft) in Hull – the highest seen by the East Yorkshire city since 1953 – and 4.7m (15ft) in Dover, Kent, the highest recorded there in more than 100 years.
