Downpours bring flood misery

Torrential rain and gale force winds have brought chaos to parts of the country.Hundreds of homes have been flooded and drivers were forced to abandon their cars as the downpours deluged huge swathes of the country.Homes in Devon, Humberside, South Yorkshire and Gloucestershire are all struggling to cope with the latest onslaught of rain and flooding.The Environment Agency put in place four severe flood warnings and 21 standard flood warnings for the day.Areas under the "severe" warnings are the Humber around Barton upon Humber and Humberston, the Louth Canal between Louth and Tetney Lock and Waithe Beck between Binbrook and Tetney Lock, south west Mansfield around Pinxton, and the River Lud in Louth.The Met Office meanwhile has severe weather warnings set up for Wales, north west England, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands and south west England.It is predicting up to 75mm (three inches) of rain could fall in Yorkshire and the Humber throughout the day, with north west England set to see up to 50mm (two inches) in some areas.The bad weather is also likely to disrupt the first day of Wimbledon as rain clouds loom over the All England Club in south west London.Humberside Fire and Rescue Service had already received about 300 calls about flooding by this morning, while Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service attended more than 200 call-outs.Firefighters and divers are battling to rescue a man trapped in a flooded manhole.Some reports said the man, thought to be in his 20s, was up to his neck in water in the Hessle area of Hull.A Humberside Fire Service spokesman said the man was trapped by his foot and police divers were helping crews to free him.Officers were also working at a kennel in Gloucester, trying to rescue 70 stranded dogs, while other crews worked on a deluged leisure centre in Cheltenham.Roads in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were blocked by flooding, forcing motorists to abandon their vehicles due to rising water, according to South Yorkshire Police.Homes in the north Devon town of Bideford were hit by flooding up to two feet deep after heavy rain during the night.Firefighters diverted floodwater after it reached two properties in the town, and elsewhere a stream burst its banks and poured water into five houses.Weatherman Stephen Davenport predicted the rain will fall off tomorrow but warned more will move in later this week.He said: "It will dry out tomorrow. There will be more rain coming in again during the rest of the week but today will be the worst day."The rain is not moving very far so it is just all falling in one place - in the North East, South West and in Wales. It is pretty heavy rain in these areas so it is going to be persistent and there will be floods."I do not think we are breaking any records for rain. It was a dry start to the month but obviously we have made up for that."© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | June 25, 2007

Tags:. .foot. .feet. .blocked. .throughout. .struggling