Families in Britain offered shelter as rain floods homes

Families in Britain were offered shelter yesterday after heavy rainfall flooded scores of properties.

Following overnight downpours, up to 60 flooded buildings were reported in two parts of the country, while most of the rest of the UK also received a soaking.

As many as 50 flooded properties were reported in Emsworth, Hampshire, and 10 in the Isle of Wight, the Environment Agency said.

Residents of a 200-metre stretch of Bridge Road in Emsworth were offered evacuation by police boat and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s water support unit after the street became submerged under about a metre of water.

Nine flood warnings were issued by the Environment Agency, mainly in the north east, and 51 areas around the country were put on flood watch.

The weather caused problems for motorists as well as householders.

Flooding closed one lane of the eastbound A27 near Chichester in West Sussex, The Highways Agency said, delaying drivers between the B2145 and the A259 junctions.

Some smaller roads were also affected.

Surface water and driving rain caused long delays for traffic and several accidents and vehicle breakdowns.

Only west Wales, western Scotland and Northern Ireland escaped the showers.

Yesterday also saw the AA record a busy day for breakdowns, with more than 13,000 reported throughout the UK, 2,000 more than normal for this time of year.

Heavy rain and leaves on the road surface were responsible for the high number of breakdowns, with Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Leicester most affected.

The weather has been caused by a deep low pressure, which will be moving east across the British Isles towards northern France during the day.

Train and ferry services were also hit as storm force winds lashed the country.

Passengers on a ferry were stranded in rough conditions in the North Sea for nearly 18 hours after bad weather stopped the vessel from docking in Aberdeen.

More than 87 people were on the NorthLink Ferries vessel MV Hjaltland, which ended up being diverted to Rosyth in Fife last night.

A passenger and car ferry carrying more than 250 people from Bergen in western Norway to Hirtshals in Denmark was unable to dock all day yesterday due to strong winds, the Fjordline ferry company said.

The Bergensfjord ferry, carrying 214 passengers and around 50 staff, as well as 47 cars, had been scheduled to dock in Hirtshals in northwestern Denmark at 8 a.m. yesterday, but had yet to do so at 6 p.m. due to strong winds, company spokes-man Ingvald Fardal said.

Another large ferry between the southern Norwegian town of Kristiansand and Hirtshals was meanwhile cancelled yesterday morning due to the strong wind.

The freezing winds and snow sweeping in over Scandinavia caused other traffic difficulties as well, with a number of ferry delays also reported in Sweden and flight delays, traffic accidents as well as power outages seen across the region.

Meanwhile, Ladbrokes broke with tradition and announced it was offering odds on a wet, rather than a white, Christmas.

The bookmaker is offering odds of 2/1 that it rains in London on Christmas Day, 9/4 that it rains in Manchester and 7/4 that it rains in Liverpool.

David Williams, of Ladbrokes, said: “Every year we offer odds on snow falling on Christmas Day and for most of the country it never does.

“In fact you would have to go back to 1974 to have a proper white Christmas in London.

“We feel that opening a market for Christmas rain is far more likely to give our customers a little more to celebrate on Christmas Day.”

But one group of people who may not be celebrating is insurers, with industry figures showing 60,200 household insurance claims were made last winter, costing £194 million in payouts.