Floods Cause Chaos Up and Down the Country
Once again England has been hit by bad weather, disrupting and cancelling flights, ferries and trains up and down the country.
Parts of the UK were brought to a virtual standstill yesterday as wind, rain and snow left no stone unturned and left people counting the cost and waiting for the next influx of atrocious weather to hit.
Although we were told to expect much worse, Heathrow was still forced to make over 200 cancellations and Gatwick had to divert 10 inbound flights to other airports. Trains were delayed by fallen trees and many roads were blocked and we were told to stay inside.
Some of those who could not ‘stay inside’ were the 30 or so people who had to be evacuated from Selsey West Sands caravan park in West Sussex after sea defences were breached and the emergency crews were called in. Despite earlier warnings some residents decided to stay at the caravan park, so emergency crews had to spend time making sure that no one had been over looked in the raging storms.
The Environment Agency have urged people to keep away from coastal areas because of the risk of flooding and high waves, and the danger of being knocked into the sea.
The worse affected areas were Wales, the South-West and Southern England, where winds gusted at up to 80mph. Yesterday afternoon 41 flood warnings were announced and 65 flood watches were in place and the whole of the Cornish coast was bracing itself for the worst.
Across the county 3,000 homes were without power, schools were forced to close and despite the precautions taken, many businesses and homes were flooded and are today counting the cost. Loss assessors are being called in, but with heavy rain still forecast there may still be worse to come.
Insurers will be looking to foot the bills for hundreds of millions of pounds and today Lloyds TSB recorded an increase of over 150% in new claims compared with a typical Monday morning, stating that most of the claims were related to damage caused by the storms.
With the Spring Tide set to hit, insurers are bracing themselves for flood and water damage claims and loss assessors are waiting to be called into access the damage.
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