Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Lakes floods hell
Alert after a foot of rain falls in 24hrs in Cumbria
SEVERE downpours have hit parts of the country with more than a month’s worth of rain falling in Cumbria in just 36 hours.
Yesterday there were warnings of more “nerve-racking” weather, which will spread south over the weekend.
The deluge in Cumbria – a nearrecord 30cm, or 1ft – left areas of the Lake District under water.
Police advised against travel, properties were flooded and Windermere’s ferry stopped as it could not “land safely”. The Environment Agency predicted “significant flooding” in the North West.
The agency’s John Curtin, said yesterday a gauge in Honister Pass in the Lake
District had recorded 29cm of rain in 24 hours, adding it was a “school ruler’s worth”.
And there were warnings of bulging river levels with a leisure centre and police station in Workington in danger of being flooded.
In Cockermouth, hit by floods in 2009 and 2015, business owners put out sandbags as the River Cocker was close to bursting its banks. Marcus Campbellsavours, a councillor in nearby Keswick, said “the last 24 hours have been nerve racking” but investment in flood defences “is paying off”. However, the town’s rugby club was waterlogged.
Outside Cumbria, fields were inundated near Ely, Cambs. Tom Morgan, from the Met Office told the Daily
Mirror: “It is still very wet on Friday so there are likely to be residual problems in the North West. Honister Pass was by far the wettest location in Cumbria.”
He added the rainfall had been “exceptional, but not unprecedented”.
Mr Morgan said floods were possible in South Wales and the South West today. There would be less rain elsewhere. Next week is forecast to be “generally quite showery”.