UK leader to visit flood-hit northern England, Scotland

Owners of animals in areas at risk of flooding are advised to move them to higher ground or other areas of safety.

The Met Office national weather service said a new British record had been set for rainfall over a 48-hour period, with 405 millimetres falling in 38 hours at Thirlmere in Cumbria.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said a record of 341mm of rainfall was measured in Honister – that’s more than a month’s worth of rainfall in just one day.

Mancunian firefighters described how flood water had caused an explosion at an electricity sub-station causing a power cut.

Peter Fox from the Environment Agency told the BBC: “The focus for today is Carlisle and I would ask people to be very vigilant there where we expect flood waters to peak at around nine o’clock”. So they spent most of yesterday driving up there.

He said: “The emergency services and others have worked superbly over the weekend”.

The Chancellor had protected a £2.3 billion investment in defences over five to six years, he noted.

He dismissed suggestions that the Agency acted more swiftly to deal with floods in the South of England, but acknowledged that it would have to review what happened in Cumbria in order to ” learn the lessons for the future”. Many rivers burst their banks and in some streets, cars have been left nearly entirely underwater.

A spokesman for the company said: “We tried everything we could to protect Carlisle but unfortunately this is an unprecedented flooding event”.

A major incident was declared in Cumbria this weekend as the region was battered by torrential rain and gale-force winds.

Carlisle’s players played at Welling in the FA Cup on Saturday, winning 5-0, meaning they were out of the area which was badly affected by flooding.

The disruption has led to the cancellation of appointments and routine services across NHS hospitals and services today.

Speed restrictions are also in place across the railway network – which, when combined with last-minute alterations to timetables, make delays extremely likely.

The AA has 50 patrols in action across Cumbria and brought in special 4×4 resources to help with more than 70 breakdowns.

The Met Office is now warning of more rain this week with yellow alerts covering Tayside, Fife, Stratchclyde, the Borders and south-west Scotland until Thursday.

“We also have our specialist Command Unit in Cumbria providing Enhanced Logistics Support”.

On the roads, Cumbria Police has confirmed that three bridges have been “washed away” by the floods: the B5295 bridge at Braithwaite, Fitz Footbridge in Keswick, and Pooley Bridge in the Eden District.