Flood-Hit Town Under Threat Again - Sky News

Tewkesbury was badly hit by floods in 2007

6:40am UK, Monday April 30, 2012

A town devastated by flooding five years ago is on alert again after rain and wind continued to wreak havoc across the country.

Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, was one of the worst hit places during flooding in July 2007, with more than 1,800 households turned upside down when torrential rainfall forced them to move out of their homes and into temporary accommodation.

The town, the scene of the striking image of Tewkesbury Abbey surrounded by flood water in 2007, is on alert again, with the Environment Agency (EA) setting up an incident room as heavy rain continued to cause the River Severn to rise.

A spokeswoman for the EA said three incident rooms had been set up in the Midlands, including at Tewkesbury, while a further incident room was set up for the Wessex area as southern parts of the UK take the brunt of the bad weather.

The agency has warned of localised flooding across parts of southern and eastern England, Midlands and Wales, with a total of 27 flood warnings and 173 flood alerts in place on its website.

A spokeswoman said: "It's not unusual to experience heavy downpours and some flooding - mainly of farmland - at this time of year, but we're continuing to closely monitor the forecast and rainfall particularly in areas along the rivers Severn, Teme and Avon, including Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

"Environment Agency teams are out on the ground continuing a close watch on river levels as well as checking defences and clearing any potential blockages to reduce the risk of flooding."

The latest downpours come at the end of a particularly wet week for England and Wales, in which 42mm (1.7in) of rain fell in the South East and 55mm (2.2in) in the South West, which has now had 166% of the average rainfall for April.

Many areas at risk of floods are currently in a state of drought, which is gripping the South East, East Anglia, the Midlands, the South West and south and east Yorkshire after two unusually dry winters in a row.

While some parts of Britain can hope for a reprieve today, the South West shows no sign of drying up with the wet weather set to continue.

Sky News weather presenter Joanna Robinson said: "Most other places will dry up, but south-west Britain will stay wet and windy, with gusts up to 60mph."

Thousands of homes were left without power in Wales over the weekend.

Around 1,200 homes in south Wales still have no electricity.

Earlier many homes were cut off in the West Midlands, as well as 2,000 in the south west, electricity supplier Western Power said.