BRITAIN:Heavy rainfall forecasts for tomorrow fuelled fears of fresh flooding along the Thames yesterday, as receding waters in worst-affected Gloucestershire aided the massive relief operation under way there.
The Red Cross launched a national appeal to help alleviate the high levels of human distress resulting from England's worst floods in living memory, while the army was called in to help distribute three million bottles of water a day to the estimated 350,000 people who have been without running water since Sunday.
With health and hygiene concerns moving up the agenda, the government's emergency Cobra committee met again ahead of a second Commons statement by environment secretary Hilary Benn, who warned MPs the crisis was "still not over".
Mr Benn announced another £10m to supplement the existing £14m flood recovery grant fund. But while welcoming the additional money, Conservative spokesman Peter Ainsworth told him: "In truth, it doesn't look like it's going to go far." With insurers already estimating costs upwards of £2 billion, Mr Ainsworth also urged Mr Benn to conduct an urgent assessment of the likely total cost and to end uncertainty about who would pay for what.
Mr Benn's statement reflected the widespread relief that a "super-human" overnight effort by emergency services had prevented floodwater breaching the walls of Gloucester's electricity substation at Walham, which serves 250,000 people.
Power was also restored to as many as 48,000 homes in Gloucestershire after the Castlemeads substation was repaired.
Despite yesterday's respite, however, Mr Benn noted continuing uncertainty about the impact on water levels of further heavy rainfall. Three severe flood warnings, on the Thames in Oxford and Abingdon and on the river Ock in Abingdon, remained in place yesterday.
The environment agency was expecting the Thames to peak in Pangbourne, Purley and the Reading areas in the early hours of this morning. It also warned that floodwaters could reach Windsor, Bracknell and Slough early tomorrow.
Gloucestershire chief fire officer Terry Standing said they were now looking to the future defences of electricity and water treatment plants, having seen the county's vital infrastructure "brought close to failure" as never before.