Mission must be fulfilled

Flood-hit areas prepare for rain

The streets of Bentley, near Doncaster, remain flooded

Flood-hit communities have experienced light rainfall during the start of the weekend, but are braced for heavier downpours overnight. The BBC Weather Centre said 30mm could hit Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands in the next 24 hours.

A national flood support centre has been set up in Worcester to respond to further outbreaks of severe weather.

Widespread flooding in England earlier this week killed four people and forced thousands from their homes.

Extra resources

Martin Blunden from Hereford and Worcester Fire Service is helping to co-ordinate work at the flood support centre, which is gathering information from emergency services across the country to co-ordinate responses to reports of flooding.

Mr Blunden told BBC News 24 that an action plan was already being put into place, moving teams to Humberside to assist with flooding expected there later on Saturday.

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He said: “Humberside is coping with floods and the water levels they’ve currently got.

“With the Met Office and the Environment Agency, we’re looking at what is likely to happen in the UK later on this afternoon, this evening and into tomorrow, and we’re making sure that appropriate resources are in place for when that actually happens.”

Further developments include:

• Electricity has been restored to more than 80,000 homes affected by rains and flooding in South Yorkshire, but 400 homes still have no power
• Rainfall of 15-25mm (0.6-1in) is predicted across many parts of England and Wales but there could be up to 40mm in some places
• Simon Hughes of the Environment Agency, said more flooding was expected: “With the land being just so saturated, more rain’s going to mean more flooding”
• West Yorkshire Police said four people were arrested for theft from flooded properties in Wakefield and that officers were patrolling the area
• People in high-risk areas of Lincolnshire were urged to call the floodline on 08459 881 188 before going to bed on Saturday, and listen to the radio for updates if the flood warning siren sounded
• More than 350 people were evacuated from their homes in north Doncaster after the river burst its banks, and firefighters are pumping water out of the area
• The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said so far 27,000 homes and 5,000 businesses had been affected across the country and that clean-up costs could reach £1bn

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency is calling on the government to find more cash to encourage farmers to manage their land in a way that would prevent flooding.

Catcliffe, South Yorkshire, was one of the worst affected areas

The agency’s head, Baroness Young, says money should be diverted from the basic farm subsidy and given to those farmers who are prepared to give up the intensive techniques experts say make flooding more likely.

She says farmers should be paid to plant more trees, allow land beside rivers to flood when necessary and to turn ploughed fields into meadows.

But correspondent Miriam O’Reilly, of BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, said experts had acknowledged that the recent rainfall had been so heavy that no amount of money could have prevented rivers from bursting their banks.

This week’s floods were most severe in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands.

Two people died in Sheffield, including a teenage boy, a man died in Hull and a driver died in Worcestershire.