UK military helps combat flooding as it spreads to cities

Rescue work… Members of the emergency services search for residents in need of rescue after the adjacent River Foss burst its banks in York.

Hundreds of people have also been evacuated from other parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire and the army has been drafted in to help with the flood response.

Community groups have raised more than £200,000 to help people who have been hit by the flooding in northern England.

The Ouse is more than 5 metres above its normal summer levels and is predicted to keep rising until lunchtime on Monday, when it is expected to reach 5.3 metres.

Huge parts of the North of England – including parts of Manchester and Leeds – were under up to 6ft of water. Some residents of the flood areas complained of in the British press about a lack of sand bags and overloaded emergency services.

Now more than 7,000 homes have no power following abnormal rainfall.

More than a hundred flood warnings remained in place on Sunday, including 24 severe warnings, which indicate a danger to life, the government said.

A flood alert from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) remains in effect for Tayside and a more severe flood warning for the River Earn from Innerpeffray to Bridge of Earn.

“In many places we have not yet reached the climax”, Environment Minister Elizabeth Truss said the broadcaster BBC, which established a liveblog on the situation in the flooded areas on Sunday.

Even city centres were not safe, as rivers burst their banks in York, Manchester and Leeds leaving buildings under several feet of water, and homeowners battling worse floods than in 2007.

LONDON (AP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron sent hundreds more troops into northern England on Sunday to help exhausted residents and emergency workers fight back rising river waters that have inundated towns and cities after weeks of heavy rain.

“The flood barriers have made a difference – both the permanent ones and the temporary ones – but it’s clear in some cases they’ve been over-topped, they’ve been overrun, and so of course we should look again at whether there’s more we should do”.

Mr Madgwick said: “We would advise people not to visit the affected areas of York and Selby at this time of high risk”.

Electricity North West warned that some properties may be without power until Monday.

“It’s getting quite bad and it’s still walloping down with rain”, she said.

“Simple things like turning off your Christmas lights or not using your washing machine or dishwasher for a while would make a huge difference”.

The council itself did not escape the bad weather, with flooding at its riverside offices affecting IT systems.

Ms Blake called for “significant investment” in additional flood defences for the city to prevent future flooding.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell called for a cross-party consensus to ensure investment in flood resilience does not fall victim to politics while a council leader in a flood-hit part of Yorkshire said measures needed to extend beyond spending on major flood defence schemes.