U.K. Seeks to Fix Flood Barrier as Thousands Flee Rising Waters

An RAF Chinook helicopter has airlifted equipment needed to fix the Foss Barrier on the the River Foss in York.

Cumbria has weathered the wettest December on record, with more than 6,700 homes across the north of England under water as river levels reached all-time highs. Lawrence Street is also covered by the warning.

Hundreds of student homes could be among those being advised to prepare for evacuation by the Environment Agency.

“As I say though, let’s have a look and see whether more needs to be done and whether the flood defences need to be made even higher than they are already”.

Search and rescue teams are on standby as up to 3500 properties could be at risk, the BBC reports, and rivers are yet to reach their peak levels, which is expected to happen on Monday.

More than 20 roads across York have been closed due to flooding while more than 7,500 homes in Greater Manchester and Lancashire have been left without power.

If the barrier became stuck in the “down” position, it would not have been able to discharge water into the River Ouse.

Today saw a huge volume of rainfall over York. “People can sign up to receive free flood warnings, check their flood risk and keep up to date with the latest situation on the Environment Agency website and on social media using #floodaware”.

The Environment Agency (EA) had more than 25 severe flood warnings for northern England in place over the weekend with Storm Frank bringing more misery on Tuesday. “We have got a few supplies to last a couple of days”.

“We are working with the fire service and most of the properties affected by flooding have been pumped out now”, he said.

“The Ministers have been extremely helpful in allocating resources to the Shipley constituency, as we all know that the flooding is widespread meaning resources are thinly-stretched”, he said.

“We have had teams out with skips collecting damaged goods and the tip sites are open with no charges”.

Environment Secretary Liz Truss told BBC Breakfast that levels of rain have been “unprecedented” and said flood defences will be reviewed.

Asked about how much money was being allocated, Ms Truss said the priority was protecting lives and homes.

He said: ‘We’ll also make sure that the help we gave to Cumbria will also be available to other parts of the country.