Lifeboats and military helicopters rescued hundreds of people overnight in northern England and a policeman was feared dead as torrential rain flooded homes and washed away bridges. Police in the picturesque Lake District county of Cumbria, a magnet for tourists, said on Friday they had found the body of a man wearing a police uniform, after an officer disappeared when a bridge collapsed while he was directing motorists off it.
"This has been one of the wettest days, one of the wettest nights in this area of Cumbria," said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "Anything that is needed to be done, we will provide." The Environment Agency said it was a "1-in-1,000-year" flood and 314 mm (12.4 inches) had fallen within 24 hours in one area, a record for England. The Meteorological Office said the amount of rain expected for all of November had fallen in one day.
"It was described to me this morning, this particular flood, as of biblical proportions," said Tony Cunningham, a member of parliament for Workington, one of the affected towns. Britain has been hit by severe flooding in recent years, raising questions about the impact of global warming. Last year the country saw its wettest summer since records began in 1914. Floods in 2007 affected 55,000 homes and businesses and left an insurance bill of around 3 billion pounds ($5 billion).
A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said the latest floods appeared less destructive but it would take several days to make a reliable estimate. The Met Office said Friday's forecast was better but another 40 mm (1.6 inches) of rain could fall on Saturday. Officials issued four severe flood warnings - meaning extreme danger to life and property - in north-west England, and six in Scotland.
One witness in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, the birthplace of poet William Wordsworth, told BBC radio he saw the water level rise rapidly from his top floor window. "Within a very short space of time people were wading knee deep and then belly deep. And it was going up so fast it actually got very scary."
Roads across north-west England and southern Scotland were closed and emergency services advised against all but essential travel in the affected areas. Ireland's Defence Forces said they were deploying 110 soldiers, 15 trucks and four boats to battle floods in the south and west of the country. Many homes and businesses were flooded in the country's second city, Cork.
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