Hundreds f lee homes af ter deluge dumped by Christoph
HUNDREDS of people were evacuated from their homes after more than a month’s rain in 56 hours turned rivers into torrents – with at least one person feared drowned.
Storm Christoph brought a trail of destruction to North-West England and Wales yesterday, and worse could be yet to come as major rivers are still rising and may overflow.
Scenes of devastation included 18th-century Llanerch Bridge over the River Clwyd being swept away in North Wales.
Households in parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside woke up yesterday in temporary accommodation after having to leave their homes. Fire services used inflatable boats to pull people through flooded streets. Fifty residents at a retirement village in Northwich, Cheshire, were evacuated.
Dozens of pensioners – some suffering from dementia – were left without power and heating.
Teachers at Tattenhall Park Primary School, near Chester, had to spend the night there after becoming trapped by floodwater.
Anna Comish, who teaches Year 5, said: ‘We tried to leave but the brook burst at about 3.30pm and we were just cut off.’ Meanwhile, a sinkhole opened up, leading to the collapse of two Victorian terrace house frontages in Manchester.
In Cardiff, emergency services spent yesterday afternoon searching for a body spotted in the River Taff.
As people whose homes were flooded begin their clean-up today, the levels of rivers such as the Wye, Severn and Ouse have yet to reach their peak.
Rainfall through Tuesday, Wednesday and until 8am yesterday reached a maximum of 7.4ins at Aberllefenni, Powys, compared to an average of 6.4ins for the whole of January.
The highest flows on sections of the Severn in Gloucestershire are not likely until tomorrow – and flood warnings remain in force until then.
Last night, three danger-to-life flood warnings remained on rivers in Cheshire. There were 190 warnings overall – meaning flooding is expected – across England and Wales.
There was also a coronavirus vaccine scare after a factory that helps produce the Oxford jab had to be saved from flooding.
Teams worked through the night on Wednesday to pump water away from the Wockhardt factory in Wrexham, North Wales, which fills vials with the vaccine before shipping them off to be used by the NHS.
Wales’s First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted: ‘Massive thank you to everyone who worked so hard to protect supplies of the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine.’
In a statement, Wockhardt confirmed: ‘The site is now secure and operating as normal.’
‘We were just cut off’