Some areas have been struck by more than a month’s worth of rain in the past 24 hours…reports Asian Lite News
A fresh weather warning has been issued – bringing the potential for heavy rain, strong winds and the risk of yet more flooding.
Some areas have been struck by more than a month’s worth of rain in the past 24 hours – with rising waters damaging homes and making roads impassable.
Earlier on Tuesday commuters faced difficult driving conditions and some road closures, along with disruption to rail services. The yellow warning applies for the whole of Thursday, covering an area from Nottinghamshire to Northumberland.
The Met Office said: “A period of heavy and persistent rain is expected to affect parts of northern England and north Midlands during much of Thursday. “The heaviest rainfall is likely to be across the Pennines and North York Moors where 80-100 mm of rainfall could accumulate during the course of the day.
“Strong winds may also affect coastal locations and routes over high ground.”
The Environment Agency (EA) has issued flood warnings – the second highest alert level – for several areas of England including across parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Kent and Somerset.
The agency has said further light rainfall is expected over the next 12 hours which will keep river levels high. The respective agencies in Scotland or Wales have not issued any warnings.
It comes after parts of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire saw more than 100mm of rain in the last 48 hours, with Woburn in Bedfordshire recording 142.8mm, more than twice its September average rainfall, according to the Met Office.
The flooding has damaged homes and continued to cause travel disruption on Tuesday, according to National Highways. The A421 remains shut in both directions between M1 (J13) and A6 (Bedford south).
Rail services have also been affected in some areas, according to National Rail, including Chiltern Railways between Birmingham Snow Hill / Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone, while buses are replacing trains between Bletchley and Bedford on London Northwestern.
Emergency services in Northamptonshire are also helping to evacuate the Billing Aquadrome over flooding at the park site. Management has already sounded the evacuation sirens for the site and people staying there were asked to leave, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue said in a statement.
They added West Northamptonshire Council teams are carrying out welfare checks on any vulnerable people, and said all emergency services will remain at the site throughout the evening.
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