North East England Braced For Flooding Our north east escorts are keeping a close eye on the weather forecast over the next few days as the North East of England and North Wales are bracing themselves for possible flooding as the weather front which brought heavy rain to southern England moves north. "Flooding can cause horrific disruption to travel plans. The last time we had floods in the north east the road system came to an almost standstill for over 3 hours, which made it almost impossible to get to appointments" said one Newcastle escort. There are about 230 flood warnings and 300 flood alerts in England and Wales, and two flood alerts in Scotland. This weekend 816 homes were flooded, mainly in south-west England. Two people have died in the storms - a woman killed by a falling tree in Exeter and a man whose car crashed into a swollen river in Cambridgeshire. Devon and Cornwall were particularly badly hit, along with Malmesbury in Wiltshire and Kempsey in Worcestershire. Chris Fawkes from the BBC Weather Centre said there had been about 60 mm (2.5 in) of rain in south-west England over the weekend. He said: "A weather front will slowly move across north England and north Wales on Monday, and it's here that we are likely to see some further serious flooding." County Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire and the Conwy area of north Wales are expected to be worst affected. The Met Office has issued an Amber weather warning for 50-70 mm (2-3 in) of rain by the end of the day. The Environment Agency has issued more than 230 flood warnings across England and Wales, which mean people should take action because flooding is expected. There are also 298 less severe flood alerts - indicating people should prepare for possible flooding. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Sepa, has two flood alerts in place in the Borders and Edinburgh and Lothians regions. There are none in Northern Ireland. Heavy rain and the related risk of flooding are forecast to continue until late on Tuesday. |
