Training | 2009.11.24
Rain threatens new Cumbria floods
Flood warnings issued as death toll from storms rises to five and planning begins on temporary Workington rail link
Persistent downpours swept over the mountain catchments of Cumbria again today as planning began on a temporary railway stop in Workington to connect the divided town via its last surviving bridge.
Mountain streams poured an estimated 100mm (3.9in) of rainfall into the already swollen Derwent and other rivers which have flooded more than 2,000 homes and businesses in the last week.
The death toll rose to five with the recovery of a body from the river Usk downstream from Brecon in Powys, where a 21-year-old woman was swept away on Saturday. Police named the woman as Kirsty Jones, from the Brecon region. The body of an 85-year-old woman was also taken by police from the Severn at Newtown in Powys.
Police officer Bill Barker, veteran canoeist Chris Wheeler and a van driver in his 40s, who has not yet been named, died in previous tragedies at Workington, Newton Abbot, Devon, and Woodmancote, East Sussex.
Flood defences were shored up all day in the towns stricken by last week\'s record rainfall, including Keswick and Cockermouth, where whole trees were hauled from the rivers Derwent and Cocker. Emergency services asked people on the Derwent\'s north bank at Workington to share mobile phones with vulnerable neighbours, as the crippled Calva bridge which carries phone links slumped another two feet.
Network Rail engineers are soon to begin work on temporary platforms for a shuttle from the town\'s north bank to Workington station in the main centre south of the Derwent. Train use across the bridge in the last two days has exceeded the usual total of passengers in a fortnight. Network Rail said that two platforms and a footbridge should be ready by the weekend, allowing regular services on the half-mile run. Cumbria county council hopes to have a single-lane temporary road bridge in place before Christmas.
The Environment Agency issued 10 flood warnings on the Cocker, the Greta near Keswick, and the Eamont in the eastern Lake District near Penrith. Spokesman Matt Crump said levels were not expected to be near the record torrents after last Thursday\'s 305mm (12in) of rain on the Scafell, Skiddaw and Helvellyn massifs, but low-lying property remained at risk. "We do have some concerns that there will be a certain amount more flooding," he said.
Clear-ups continued unaffected in all the damaged towns, with the last traces of Christmas gifts and other sodden debris swept from Cockermouth\'s Main Street. Just over 1,000 households and businesses remained without power tonight, plus 38 at Northside and Concrete Row in Workington.
Only five schools in Cumbria were closed today in spite of long travel diversions, including the bussing of 461 Workington children 30 miles to reach their school, usually a 10-minute walk across the river.
Three flood warnings remain in place on the Dee in north Wales, one on the Severn at Shrewsbury, and one at Naburn, a village downstream from York which is regularly cut off by the Ouse. Police in the Scottish borders asked drivers to avoid non-essential travel, with 75mm (3in) of rain falling across the area.
Divers were called in to help repair flooded rail tracks in the Conwy valley, north Wales, where replacement buses are linking Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog.
One of the lead GPs in Cockermouth, Dr John Howarth, who has third world disaster planning experience, said that medical teams were ready to cope with delayed shock and depression. He said: "This is one of the big issues that we\'re going to face over the next few days, when people gradually come to terms with the stark reality of losing their homes."
Two of Cockermouth\'s three health centres have been knocked out, but a new base is being built at Cockermouth cottage hospital, 150ft (45 metres) above the rivers, which was saved by a local campaign three years ago.
A newly married couple praised staff at the Inn on the Lake at Glenridding, by Ullswater, where they were married in wellies after their florist\'s Land Rover had got them there through floods. The civil licence given to Derek Holliday and Marian Jenner required them to be married at the hotel, or to cancel the ceremony.
A mobile bank will visit Northside and Seaton in Workington this morning. Further south, staff at Sellafield nuclear complex have been given alternative routes to work after the closure of local bridges.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/24/cumbria-flood-warnings
