Storm Christoph: Five serious flood warnings remain in the UK | UK News

Five severe flood warnings remained in effect in the UK on Thursday morning, after hundreds of properties in Greater Manchester and Wales were evacuated overnight due to flooding from Storm Christoph.

The Environmental Agency issued four life-threatening “severe” flood warnings for the Bollin River and Agden Brook in Little Bollington, the Bollin River in Heatley, the Mersey River in East Didsbury and the Mersey River in West Didsbury and Northenden.

A fifth was issued by Natural Resources Wales for Bangor-on-Dee, where up to 30 people were evacuated from their homes. Another 200 flood warnings were set in Wales and northern England, with up to 11.8 inches (30 cm) of snow forecast in northern areas, including for large stretches of the River Irwell and River Roch.

In Wales, emergency services worked through the night to prevent flood water from damaging an industrial site where a crucial part of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturing takes place.

Wockhardt UK, which has a contract with the UK government to “complete the finishing” of Covid vaccines, has laboratories, production lines and warehouses on the Wrexham Industrial Estate.

The company said it had experienced “minor flooding, which resulted in excess water surrounding parts of the buildings throughout the site.” He added: “All necessary precautions were taken, which means that no manufacturing or water inflow to the buildings was interrupted. The site is now safe and free from further flood damage and is operating normally. “

Mark Pritchard, Wrexham County City Council Leader, said teams worked to ensure no vaccines were missed.

He told BBC Radio Wales: “We had an incident at Wrexham Industrial Estate, the Oxford vaccine is produced there and the warehouse where it is stored, obviously I can’t tell you where it is, but we had to work in partnership to make sure we didn’t lose the vaccines in floods. I’ve been up all night … it’s a very difficult time for us. “

Thousands of people were assessing the damage to their homes and businesses on Thursday morning, after some 2,000 properties were affected by flooding in the East Didsbury, West Didsbury and Northenden areas of Greater Manchester on Wednesday night.

Nick Bailey, the deputy chief of police for Greater Manchester Police, said the region had “avoided the worst” but maintained that asking people to evacuate was the right measure.

Ben Lukey of the Environment Agency said parts of the region had seen 200mm of rain, more than a month of rain, on Tuesday and Wednesday and some rivers had reached record levels.

He said that two river basins, at Didsbury and Chorlton in south Manchester, had helped prevent flooding overnight: “It has been extraordinarily wet and a lot of people have been affected by that, but it looks like rain at night maybe it wasn’t as extreme as it could have been. “

Richard Kilpatrick, Lib Dem Councilor for West Didsbury, said about 2,300 properties were recommended to be evacuated overnight, but it was not known how many followed the advice. The Manchester Evening News reported that no residential properties were thought to have been affected by the flooding on Wednesday night. However, the extent of any damage is expected to become clear as the day progresses.

Kilpatrick said he had helped evacuate people from their homes overnight after police knocked on doors at The Beeches in Didsbury, and the local mosque opened.

He said: “I think the atmosphere has been a mixture of anxiety and disbelief. I helped knock on the door to inform residents. We are doing well and spirits are high. We just don’t expect it to happen here, the defenses have always been enough. “

People were also asked to leave their homes in parts of Ruthin and Bangor-on-Dee in North Wales, and Maghull in Merseyside.

The Environment Agency said many rivers were at “dangerously high levels” but at 7am on Thursday morning Manchester City Council said it believed the water levels of the River Bollin and the River Mersey in Northenden and Didsbury they had reached their peak.

An amber rain warning in Greater Manchester has been replaced by a yellow ice warning, which is in place until 10am. Motorists are urged to be careful on the roads, with many roads closed and rail services disrupted.

North Wales Police declared a major incident in the early hours of Thursday in nearby Bangor-on-Dee, stating: “Severe flood risk: emergency services are calling on Bangor-on-Dee residents to evacuate the properties and contact Ysgol Sant Dunawd immediately. “

But the force asked: “Do not try to leave the area yourself. The emergency services will use 4 × 4 vehicles to evacuate the residents of the school ”.

Natural Resources Wales said the River Dee, which runs through Bangor-on-Dee, was at its highest level on record since the water meter came online in 1996.

Some residents of Ruthin, North Wales, were also evacuated and stayed with relatives or were accommodated by local authorities.

In South Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf’s council said there was a landslide on the mountainside above the town of Pentre, but did not believe there was an immediate threat to the area.

North Wales Police said their officers were helping the fire service evacuate homes in Ruthin, Denbighshire, and urged people to avoid the area. The force tweeted: “Officers have been called in to assist DenbighshireCC and NWFRS in Ruthin, where some houses are being evacuated. Unfortunately, people who do not live in the area are driving to the area to “see the floods.” Please don’t stretch our resources by increasing the problem. “

At a Cobra committee meeting, the prime minister said that everything possible was being done to minimize the impact of the floods. Johnson said late Wednesday that the government was working to ensure it was “fully prepared” for floods “in all parts of the UK”.

In England there were four severe flood warnings, 201 flood warnings and 226 flood warnings, while much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland were subject to yellow weather warnings for rain until Thursday morning, with an amber warning. more serious stretching from the East Midlands to the Lake District.

The Amber Alert warns of the risk of flooding and deep water that could pose a risk to life, and there were more snow and ice warnings in Scotland.

An amber snow warning in parts of southern Scotland warned that around 30cm could fall in areas above 400m, with up to 10cm likely to accumulate in lower regions by 8am.