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Humanitarian crisis as thousands left wthout power or water across central England
• One million victims but 'the worst is yet to come' forecast for central England
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By
The Minx, contributing editor
Monday,
23 July, 2007
The toll of victims in the worst UK floods in modern history is spiralling towards a million.
With more than 500,000 people without water, power or homes, experts warned that 'the worst is yet to come' from fast-rising rivers.
Tens of thousands more families were put on red alert as rivers reached levels not seen for more than 50 years across central, western and southern England.
Towns, villages and isolated rural homes were still cut off last night, roads were blocked and mile upon mile of countryside was under a sea of muddy water.
Some 350,000 people in Gloucestershire will be without running water today after a treatment plant was swamped. They have been told their supplies are unlikely to be restored for at least a week.
Power cuts have already hit 50,000 homes and there are fears that the rising water could knock out a major electricity substation that supplies 500,000 people in and around Gloucester.
With millions of gallons of water from the torrential rain surging downstream, some rivers are expected to be 20ft higher than normal, sending a torrent of dirty water into streets and homes.
Homeowners across Oxfordshire, the Midlands and Bedfordshire were moving possessions upstairs and preparing to sandbag their homes after severe flood warnings were issued.
In Oxford, there are fears that historic riverside colleges such as Christ Church and Magdalen could be swamped. Refugee families were bedding down at the city's football stadium last night.
As the misery deepened, more questions were being asked about the basic failures in flood defences - and the Government's decision to cut spending on floods last year.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who toured some of the worst scenes of destruction yesterday, announced a review of the flood defences.
Anthony Perry, a flood risk expert at the Environment Agency, compared the disaster to March 1947, when almost every river in England flooded during a thaw after a freezing winter.
He said: "We have not seen flooding of this magnitude before. The benchmark was 1947 and this has already exceeded it."
Unsurprisingly, the Met Office said the month is on course to be the wettest July in history.
Last night the key battle against the forces of nature was being fought at the Walham electricity sub-station in Gloucester, which supplies 500,000 people.
Royal Navy personnel and firefighters were piling up sandbags and erecting steel barriers to keep the floods away.
One worker said: "The water's still going up. It's getting pretty bad, to tell you the truth. There are blokes from the fire service who have been here 24 hours. They look exhausted."
North of Gloucester, the Castlemead substation, which supplies more than 48,000 homes, was turned off so 150 RAF servicemen and firefighters could pump out water from the overflowing Severn.
Severn Trent Water had already had to turn off mains supplies to 350,000 people after contaminated flood water swamped a major treatment plant.
Insurance companies said they were preparing to pay out more than £2 billion in claims.
Gloucestershire county council chief executive Pete Bungard said: "We've seen flooding, flooding, flooding but that is only about 2,000 homes.
"Tonight we are going to have 350,000 people without a water supply and that is likely to last for an absolute minimum of seven days. That really does change your style of life.
"We're talking about the whole of Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester and small communities in between. It's more than half of Gloucestershire's population. It's probably about 80 per cent of our economy in those three towns and cities."
Last night the list of affected areas had grown to include Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire and Warwickshire.
Fears of further flooding centred on the swollen Severn, Thames and Great Ouse.
Water levels in the Thames at Oxford were expected to peak early this morning.
Reading, further downstream, will be at most risk on Wednesday morning, with hundreds of houses in danger.
By Thursday the surge should have reached Windsor.
Bedford, which lies close to the Great Ouse, and Gloucester, on the Severn, will receive their peak water flow this morning.
At Upton upon Severn - between Worcester and Tewkesbury - the river was 18ft higher than normal yesterday.
The Environment Agency had 42 flood warnings in place - including eight severe warnings.
It emerged yesterday that the heavy rain affected some facilities at Atomic Weapons Establishment sites in Aldermaston and Burghfield, near Reading.
A sewage plant flooded on one of the sites but tests for radiation were negative.
Experts raised health fears yesterday, warning parents in particular to avoid polluted floodwaters which can carry a cocktail of potentially deadly bacteria.
Some homes have been flooded with raw sewage and water.
The Naked Reader 2007
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