Page last updated at 08:14 GMT, Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Mop-up begins as UK weather eases

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A woman stranded in her car by the floods is rescued by the fire service in an inflatable boat

A clean-up operation has got under way after torrential rain and heavy snow flooded parts of southern Britain.

In Gloucestershire, 40 people have been injured, three critically, when two buses crashed in icy conditions.

On Tuesday, many homes in Essex were flooded, while elsewhere schools were forced to close and 3,000 Midlands homes went without power.

Parts of south-west England saw almost a month's rain in 24 hours, but the worst weather is now said to be over.

At about 0520 GMT on Wednesday, a coach believed to be carrying 30 Army personnel crashed into a tree at Puesdown, south east of Cheltenham.

Earlier, at about 0445 GMT, a minibus with 14 people on board crashed at Highnam, west of Gloucester.

An ambulance spokesman said the roads were "treacherously icy".

Councils are awaiting a shipment of salt from Germany in case of more snow storms.

Rivers overflow

Heavy rain which fell overnight on Monday and, combined with melting snow from last week's record downfall, caused river levels to rise.

TUESDAY WEATHER TOLL
2.3in (6cm) of rain in Scilly Isles
4.7in (12cm) of snow in Bristol
London's Thames Barrier closed
3,000 homes in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire left without electricity
Almost 200 schools closed

This prompted the Environment Agency to issue more than 300 flood warnings or lesser alerts during the worst of the weather.

Several rivers burst their banks including the River Colne in Hertfordshire, where some areas were under four feet of water, and the Cam in West Camel, Somerset.

By Wednesday morning, 63 warnings remained in place, mainly in eastern parts of England.

There were further warnings for motorists to take care on the roads as they were expected to be icy after hard overnight frosts.

Emergency services have handled hundreds of flood-related calls since Monday night, assisting stranded motorists and helping householders to protect their homes with sandbags.

Roads were closed by heavy snow and flooding in Oxfordshire, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire and Sussex.

Bob Spink, UKIP MP for Castle Point in Essex, called on the government to make an urgent statement on flooding in the county, where many homes were under water.

The river Avon bursts its banks and floods the lower part of central Bradford-on-Avon
Several rivers burst their banks after heavy snow and rain

Other counties badly affected included Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire where up to 3,000 homes had their electricity cut off at one stage, largely because of the weather.

According to Central Networks website, power has now been fully restored.

Shoreham, in West Sussex, saw 1.6in (4.1cm) of rain in one day - the average monthly rainfall in Sussex is 2.2in (5.7cm).

And Northolt, in Middlesex, had 1.5in (3.8cm) of rain, while the monthly average for the area is 1.5in (3.9cm).

On Wednesday, forecasters are expecting cloud and some wintry showers to push south over England and Wales and there will be sunshine in the north with some showers on the east coast.



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