Hundreds face evacuation as river’s flood defences fail

HUNDREDS of residents near the River Steeping in Lincolnshire are to be evacuated for up to two days because of concerns about flood defences.

The Environment Agency confirmed that a decision had been made to “evacuate the highest risk areas and the most vulnerable”.

Heavy rainfall affected large parts of England on Wednesday and Thursday with dozens of flood warnings issued.

Residents in Wainfleet, which lies on the Steeping, experienced two months’ worth of rain in two days – leading to a burst in the river bank on Wednesday.

A state of emergency was declared on Thursday and residents were evacuated from dozens of flooded properties.

Three RAF Chinook helicopters dropped 270 one-ton bags of aggregate to repair the bank on Friday.

But according to City of Lincoln Council, the “repairs at River Steeping have deteriorated” and the RAF will have to return to “drop further ballast”.

Lincolnshire Police tweeted a map of affected properties and said residents should prepare to be away for 48 hours. A rest centre has been set up in nearby Skegness.

Jean Hart, a Wainfleet resident, said she and her husband had “lost everything” when their home was flooded.

She told the Lincolnshire Live website: “The whole of the bottom of our house is completely gone. Everything’s floating including our beds. “We recently renovated the whole of the first floor, but now everything we own is in foul water.”

Simon Partridge of the Met Office said: “For Lincolnshire ... there shouldn’t be much more additional rain. We won’t see any significant rain until early Wednesday.”

During the heavy rain on Thursday, passengers on a London-to-Nottingham train had to be transferred after a landslide in Corby. Around 400 people were stranded before being evacuated.