BRITAIN: Road and rail travel across the UK were severely disrupted yesterday as more heavy rain swept over Britain from the Atlantic, leading to a spate of cancellations and accidents.
As a severe weather warning was issued by the Meteorological Office for the whole of Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia and everywhere in southern England except Cornwall, train operators warned passengers to expect delays and suspended services.
First Great Western spokesman Adrian Ruck said: "We believe two days of rain has fallen in an hour in some places." On the roads Essex county council recorded 14 accidents in an hour and Hampshire police said many roads had to be closed because of flooding or fallen trees.
The travel chaos heaped further misery on to the £1.5 billion (€2.2 billion) damage inflicted by storms in the past three weeks. Brief but torrential downpours passed in successive belts as council flood controls and insurance call centres doubled staff for the weekend. Flash floods swept through part of Barry, south Wales, trapping residents in their homes and sending sewage into the street. Firefighters in a boat rescued three people from knee-high water in one building and a man was briefly trapped in his car in a dip below a road bridge. A spokeswoman for South Wales fire service said: "The problem seems to be blocked drains which have sent sewage into the street because of the quantity of rainfall." The only bright spot was that the worst of the rain kept away from the battered north, where a huge recovery operation is installing thousands of temporary homes for people whose houses have already been wrecked.
Severe weather warnings will remain in force today for north Wales and the West Midlands but the rain is expected to ease off overnight. Tomorrow is forecast to be showery and dull in most areas and heavy rain may return to the south on Monday.
In one of the first and worst-hit areas, Doncaster, the home of a couple in flooded Adwick le Street had been burgled twice since waist-high water filled it a fortnight ago. Simon Young said that he and his wife, Cheryl, had no family possessions left. He said: "They've taken the kiddies' money box, Cheryl's grandmother's jewellery, the new-born's clothes, even nappies. I think we need to put a sign up outside - 'burgled twice, please don't bother'." - (Guardian service)