【09.11.20每日电讯报】坎布里亚洪水：警察怕死，十人失踪于非常巨大的洪水

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Cumbria floods: policeman feared dead, ten people missing amid 'biblical' deluge

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6613487/Cumbria-floods-policeman-feared-dead-ten-people-missing-amid-biblical-deluge.html

A policeman is missing feared dead and ten other people are unaccounted for after floods in Cumbria of "biblical" proportions.
By Aislinn Laing
Published: 11:30AM GMT 20 Nov 2009

Hundreds of people had to be rescued from their homes and some airlifted to safety after more than 250mm (9.8 inches) of rain fell in little over 24 hours and rivers burst their banks.

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said the downpour may have resulted in "the wettest day ever recorded" in famously rainy Cumbria.

He claimed the resulting flood in worst-hit town Cockermouth was "a one in a thousand year" occurence which could not have been prevented by the town's flood defences.

Police and fire services, the RNLI and RAF staff worked throughout the night, using lifeboats and wading chest-deep in water to rescue residents trapped in their homes in the Cumbrian towns of Cockermouth, Workington and Keswick. One worker finishing his shift this morning described the scene as close to "armageddon".

At around 4.40am, a stone bridge leading into the town of Workington, which sits at the mouth of the River Derwent and close to the west coast, collapsed into the surging river beneath, taking a police officer with it.

One emergency service worker interviewed by Sky News claimed the officer was attending a report that a vehicle was attempting to drive onto the partially collapsed Northside bridge.

The RNLI dispatched a lifeboat to begin a search at sea and a family liaison officer was sent to support the man's family.

Cumbria Police Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Kennedy said: "Emotionally it's a very difficult time for our officers who are in and around Workington and know what's happened but are still carrying on with their duties."

A further ten people have been reported missing by concerned relatives and friends.

In Cockermouth, a tourist attraction because it is the birthplace of William Wordsworth but also a historic flooding hotspot because it sits between the rivers Cocker and Derwent, around 1,000 properties were thought to have been flooded and 200 people had to be rescued.

A lifeboat commander told The Times that firemen had to break into a bank on Main Street to rescue two women trapped inside by flood waters of up to eight feet.

"There was a massive torrent going past the front of the building and they were on the first floor behind barred windows, said Sarah Nimmo-Scott, deputy divisional commander in the RNLI.

"In the end we had to get the fire brigade to basically break into Barclays Bank and they we shipped them out."

Gwenda Davies said was staying at a friend's home and both were trapped in upstairs. She described a "raging torrent" around six feet high in the lane outside the house.

"The water is now up to the downstairs ceiling and I can hear the furniture downstairs knocking on the ceiling," she said by phone. "The River Cocker is apparently one of the fastest flowing in the country apparently and we certainly know it now."

Tony Cunningham, MP for Workington, suggested the flood was “of biblical proportions” to be able to take down the Northside Bridge.

“I went down to the bridge last night and I’ve never seen the River Derwent as wide as it was," he said. “The force of the river was absolutely incredible. This is a stone bridge, to wash away a bridge of that size and dimension is incredible.”

The Army has now been called out to help the civilian emergency services to rescue people still trapped in their homes and begin to clean up as the water levels abate.

Mr Benn, who is in Cockermouth, said the while flood defences there had been strengthened recently, they were only built to withstand a "one-in-100-years flood".

"What we dealt with last night was probably more like one-in-a-1,000, so even the very best defences, if you have such quantities of rain in such a short space of time, can be over-topped," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, contacted the chief constable of Cumbria Police to offer any Government assistance he needs.

"Our thoughts are with all those who have been impacted by these floods and our thanks go out to the emergency services who continue in their extraordinary efforts to help the people affected," he said.

Flooding has also been reported in Cork where the River Lee has burst its banks, and there were reports that a family of five including an 87-year-old woman had to be airlifted to safety from their home in the early hours of the morning.

Flooding was also reported in north-west Wales and in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, and the inclement weather caused widespread distruption on trains and roads around the country as well as at sea, where gale force seven winds raged.

The Environment Agency Floodline service has received more than 12,000 calls from members of the public over the last 48 hours and issued more than 43,000 flood alerts via phone, text, email and fax.

It currently has six severe flood warnings in place - all in Cumbria - 29 flood warnings, and 65 less serious flood watches.

Julian Mayes, a forecaster with MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said the rainfall in Cumbria was an "historical event".

Mr Mayes said the levels of rain were equivalent to five or six months of rainfall typically experienced over London and the south east of England.

"The fact that there's eight feet of water in some places is not that surprising," he said.

"Primarily, it's the sheer quantity in the last 36 hours that has caused the flooding.

"But in November the ground is saturated. The rain can't get into the soil, it just runs off.

"That means rivers rise very quickly and suddenly."