A man and a woman died and two more people were feared drowned yesterday after more than 36 hours of torrential rain caused widespread flooding across Britain. Snow also fell in some areas in weather more like Christmas than Easter.
The rising water level of some rivers in central England led weather forecasters to predict that the floodwaters had reached their highest peak in 50 years. At one stage yesterday the water level of rivers in Gloucestershire was rising at a rate of nine inches an hour while many roads and towns in the Midlands, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire were virtually cut off by the floods. West Mercia Fire Service in Worcestershire confirmed the human cost of the bad weather when the body of a man was recovered from a flooded caravan park on the banks of the River Avon, near Evesham. It is believed the man was holidaying at the River Mead Caravan Park when he was overwhelmed by a flash flood that caused the River Avon to burst its banks. The body of a woman was also found in a flat in the St James area of Northampton but police were unable to confirm if she had died as a result of the floods.
In Warwickshire, one of the areas that was worst hit by floods and rain, police officers were continuing the search for a 14-yearold boy who was a passenger in a van that was swept away from a flooded road in Eathorpe.
Meanwhile, rescue workers in Stratford close to the River Avon, spent the day answering the calls of stranded residents and motorists who were caught out by the floods. "There's a Dunkirk spirit out here," said one rescue worker who warned people to stay in their homes rather than attempting dangerous journeys along flooded roads. Police in Northampton were forced to appeal for volunteers as they attempted to reach frightened residents by boat.
As snow fell in Birmingham and weather commentators warned the conditions would get worse before they would get better, rail travel was also badly affected. Virgin trains, travelling through the Midlands on Thursday, were stranded overnight when railway lines were flooded by water running off nearby hills. More rain was expected with the worst hit areas being the Midlands, the north-east and north Wales.
A red flood alert was last night issued for the entire length of the Avon.