Floods in Britain

The River Thames burst its banks after reaching its highest level in years, inundating towns upstream from London in some of the worst flooding ever seen in Britain.   

Flood waters surround homes adjacent to the River Thames in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey 

 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg visits the flooding sites at Burrowbridge, Somerset 

A Fire and Rescue crew help evacuate residents from flood-affected homes adjacent to the river Thames in Walton-on-Thames

  

School children are ferried by boat in Old Winsor, Berkshire, after the River Thames burst its banks

 view of the flooding at the cricket ground in Worcester after the River Severn bursts its banks 

 

Environment Agency has 16 severe flood warnings out in southern England, with 14 of these along the Thames

Flooding in Datchet, a village next to the Thames near Windsor in Berkshire, forces National Rail to cancel trains

Residents and British troops had piled up sandbags in a bid to protect properties from the latest bout of flooding to hit Britain. But the floods overwhelmed their defences Monday Feb 10,2014 leaving areas including the center of the village of Datchet underwater.

Southern and Western Britain are bracing themselves for more storms and rain as the wettest January on record looks set to continue well into February 2014

Flood-hit Britain suffered a fresh battering on Wednesday Feb 12,2014 from storms and high winds that caused power outages to nearly 150,000 homes, the cancellation of football matches and the death of one man.

Gusts approaching 100 miles (160 kilometres) per hour tore at parts of England and Wales, and the River Thames was predicted to rise to its highest level in more than 60 years in places, threatening towns and villages to the west of London.

One man died after being electrocuted while attempting to move a fallen tree that had brought down power lines in Wiltshire, southwest England, and 147,000 homes, mostly in Wales, were left without power after high winds brought down power cables, the authorities said.

More than 1,100 properties along the Thames have been flooded since January 29,2014

Fourteen severe flood warnings -- indicating a danger to life -- were in place in Berkshire and Surrey to the west of London, while two remain in Somerset in southwest England, the first area to be badly hit.

Forecasters said 70 millimetres (2.75 inches) of rain would fall by Friday in southwest England

Environment Agency's chief exectiveu,Paul Leinster said: "We continue to have teams out on the ground 24/7 working to protect lives, homes, businesses, communities and farmland."

Prime Minister David Cameron chaired the Govt's COBRA Emergency Committee and then told parliament he stood by his pledge that "money is no object in this relief effort"

"I want communities who are suffering and people who see water lapping at their doors to know that when it comes to the military, when it comes to sandbags, when it comes to restoring broken flood defences, all of those things, money is no object ''