Woman killed as downpours and floods hit UK

Martin Wainwright
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 February 2010 12.15 GMT
Article history

Emergency services were today keeping watch on scores of small rivers across much of Britain after warnings of renewed downpours.

The move comes after a woman was killed when her Land Rover was picked up and carried 200 yards in a torrent down a normally innocuous stream.

The body of 53-year-old Vanessa Robson was found after her Freelander became wedged amid debris beneath Muffles Bridge, which carries a remote farm road across Hartoft Beck on the edge of the North York Moors national park.

North Yorkshire police said the beck had been filled with debris.

Robson's body was recovered from the River Seven close to its confluence with Hartoft Beck, less than a mile downstream from the bridge. Her death focused attention on the threat of similar flash flooding and sudden surges in water levels as Britain catches the tail of a storm sweeping across continental Europe.

The Environment Agency has around 100 flood watches in place, with three flood warnings – two on the Ouse and Derwent, near York, and one on the Nene, east of Peterborough.

There are also two flood warnings in place in Scotland, on the Solway Firth between the Esk estuary and Loch Ryan, and along the North Sea coast between Berwick and Peterhead.

The Meteorological Office warned of a "prolonged spell of wet and windy weather, with heavy rain falling on already saturated ground across England."

The so-called Portuguese storm, a front which gathered strength over the Bay of Biscay before moving across France and the Low Countries, is expected to add gale force winds to the rain in southern and eastern England.

The Environment Agency warned of the unexpected strength as well as speed of flash-flooding in small rivers.

"Even a few inches of flowing water can knock people off their feet," spokesman David Beddlington said. "Often you can't see through floodwater, which is muddy and dirty and may have debris beneath the surface."

Two skiers are recovering after being caught in an avalanche in Glencoe on Saturday after heavy snowfalls across Scotland. Several hundred houses remain without power in Perthshire and Aberdeenshire after snow brought down power cables on Saturday, initially cutting off 45,000 homes. About 100 houses have also been evacuated in Aberdeenshire following landslip warnings in area of steep and sodden ground.