Weather warnings for snow and ice are in place in Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and Wales as hundreds of flood alerts remain across the UK – one requiring a “large-scale” evacuation.
Insurance firm chief ‘never seen anything like it’ as flood hits his office
A business owner in one of the worst-affected parts of the country said he’s “never seen anything like it” as flooding reached up to his knees at the office.
Troy Stevens, chief executive at Rhino Trade Insurance, said he knew they’d been impacted when he saw 20 missed calls from colleagues on the way to work in Thurmaston, Leicestershire yesterday.
But he told The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee “nothing could prepare me for what we saw”.
Laptops have been destroyed and their office rendered unworkable, leaving some of his staff unable to work.
“It’s not what I expected to come back to after Christmas break on a Monday morning,” he said, adding his firm, which insures tradespeople, will now be relying on those same tradespeople to get them up and running again.
“I think the worst is to come,” he added. “And I think all we can do is kind of make the best of what we can do right now.”
Leicestershire was one of two counties where a major incident was declared yesterday due to the weather, along with Lincolnshire.
And parts of the county in and around Thurmaston were hit by another flood a year ago, which Mr Stevens said should have helped authorities to mitigate damage this time around.
“It’s easy to play the blame game, however, you’d like to think that if this was to have happened the year before, which it did do, there would be some form of investigation with a look for prevention,” he said.
“Hopefully that can happen this time. As for kind of blaming local authorities or local councils, I’d like to see if they could do more following this incident, as opposed to looking backwards.”
Floods starting to recede in hard-hit county – but it will ‘take time’
An update from Lincolnshire now, where, as we’ve reported over the past couple of days, a major incident was declared due to the weather.
While the situation across the county is “improving” and floodwaters are “starting to recede”, it will “take time for water to return to normal”, according to Lincolnshire Resilience Forum.
More than 20 flood warnings have been removed over the past 24 hours, the group added, and some road closures are being lifted.
Severe warning stood down – but more than 300 alerts and warnings still in place
A rare severe flood warning for risk to life – which had covered a caravan park near Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire – has been removed.
A flood warning remains in place, which means flooding is still expected and residents should seek higher ground, turn off gas and electricity and set up flood protection equipment.
We’ve been reporting today from the village and surrounding area, where residents told us they fear flooding is becoming the “new normal” – see our 12.24 post.
Another villager said he waited three hours on his boat home for emergency services to rescue him, his wife and their dog last night, when the deluge almost swept them away.
Barrow upon Soar is affected by one of 105 flood warnings currently in effect around England, with another 200 flood alerts, which mean flooding is possible.
People trapped in their Leicestershire homes
Dozens in Loughborough in Leicestershire have been trapped after flooding caused damage to their properties.
One person, Duaa Abdulal, 25, who was visiting her mother’s home for Christmas, said she did not expect to get “trapped” while staying there.
She told the PA news agency: “We’re stuck upstairs. Last year my family managed to leave the building.
“Thankfully, today we managed to get everything upstairs when we got the flood warning.
“We’re still recovering from last year, actually, we haven’t finished refurbishing the house, so it’s stressful.”
Ms Abdulal said she hopes to leave the house on Wednesday when the water has receded.
It comes as a major incident was declared in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire after heavy rain and snow caused severe flooding in the Midlands.
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service responded to more than 380 calls on Monday and Tuesday because of widespread flooding in the county, attending 56 incidents.
Insurance firm chief ‘never seen anything like it’ as flood hits his office
A business owner in one of the worst-affected parts of the country said he’s “never seen anything like it” as flooding reached up to his knees at the office.
Troy Stevens, chief executive at Rhino Trade Insurance, said he knew they’d been impacted when he saw 20 missed calls from colleagues on the way to work in Thurmaston, Leicestershire yesterday.
But he told The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee “nothing could prepare me for what we saw”.
Laptops have been destroyed and their office rendered unworkable, leaving some of his staff unable to work.
“It’s not what I expected to come back to after Christmas break on a Monday morning,” he said, adding his firm, which insures tradespeople, will now be relying on those same tradespeople to get them up and running again.
“I think the worst is to come,” he added. “And I think all we can do is kind of make the best of what we can do right now.”
Leicestershire was one of two counties where a major incident was declared yesterday due to the weather, along with Lincolnshire.
And parts of the county in and around Thurmaston were hit by another flood a year ago, which Mr Stevens said should have helped authorities to mitigate damage this time around.
“It’s easy to play the blame game, however, you’d like to think that if this was to have happened the year before, which it did do, there would be some form of investigation with a look for prevention,” he said.
“Hopefully that can happen this time. As for kind of blaming local authorities or local councils, I’d like to see if they could do more following this incident, as opposed to looking backwards.”
Be the first to comment