London, July 21:
Torrential rain on Friday in Britain led to flash floods in many parts
of the country and forced thousands of motorists to spend the night in
their cars.
Some parts of Britain were deluged with rain that was around three
times the amount normally expected for the whole of July.
Emergency services dealt with thousands of calls as hundreds of drivers
were stranded overnight7 on flooded roads. The worst hit area was the
M5 highway near Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.
A forecaster for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press
Association, said that Pershore in Worcestershire appeared worst hit
with 145.4mm of rain in 25 hours between Thursday and Friday. The usual
amount of rainfall for this time of year would be 50-60mm in a month,
he said.
The wet summer has dampened the holiday plans of locals as
holidaymakers stranded on top of caravans had to be rescued by lifeboat
crews in rescue operations.
Even some TV stations were paralysed as satellite reception went down,
computers froze in offices and many towns ground to a halt.
Southern and southwest England seem to have suffered the brunt of the
torrential rain on Friday. Baroness Young, chief executive of the
Environment Agency, told Sky News, "These are the sorts of rainfalls we
experience in the past every 100 years, every 150 years, sometimes
every 200 years, they’re very extreme."
The M5 highway was clogged with traffic, with most drivers still
waiting to move after spending the night in stationary traffic.
There were reports about people who had been forced to spend over 17-20
hours stranded in their vehicles on the highway without food or water.
TV news showed clips of drivers driving up the hard shoulder on the
highway in a bid to escape the chaos.
However, the traffic police has warned that all the traffic rules were
being enforced and people would be fined if they broke traffic rules.
The Royal Air Force also joined in to help the emergency services in
the rescue operations.
There were reports of flight delays due to torrential rains at Heathrow
Airport on the busiest weekend of summer as the school holidays have
begun in Britain. About 141 flights were cancelled at Heathrow.
Severe delays were also reported on rail and road networks due to flash
floods and 25 underground tube stations in London were closed due to
floods.
Weather forecasters have warned that more wet weather is on the way.
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:4IbBttmfD4YJ:www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news
/international/britain-floods-strand-thousands.aspx+%22britain+floods+strand+thousands%22&hl=en&ct=
clnk&cd=1&gl=in
© Copyrights 2006 Asian Age.
