Emergency services have resorted power to an electricity substation as flood water threatened to cut off the power to thousands of home across Gloucestershire.
Speaking at a press conference, Chief constable of
Gloucestershire police, Tim Brain, described the efforts as “superhuman” and said that ” the crisis was past just before midnight, and it has continued to function and supply electricity to the Gloucester area and beyond”.However, he was keen to express that the emergency was not over, saying “water is still high around Walham and there is a prospect of further peaks and the problem of retained water in the Severn basin is going to give problems for several days to come”.
The flooding across Gloucestershire and many other areas of Southern England has been some of the worst in history, with water levels at a dangerously high point. Three people died when the River Severn burst its banks and engulfed the town of Tewkesbuy. Thousands of motorists have also been stranded in their cars overnight on the M5 motorway.
Parts of Hereford and Worcestershire have also found themselves under 6ft (1.82m) of water, with Evesham and Upton-upon-Severn both heavily affected. In Evesham, about 20 special needs children trapped at a special needs school and guests and staff were confined to the upper floors of the Northwick Hotel.
Meanwhile, 140,000 homes still remain without water in the area, following flooding at the water treatment works, at Mythe. Alan Payne from Severn Trent water said “We’re doing everything we can to address that as a priority and we have two to three million litres of bottled water a day being delivered to Cheltenham Racecourse to be distributed by the military at 17 centres”. “We currently have 490 bowsers here and another 270 are on their way. We will have 900 here by 6am tomorrow”.
The environment agency now believe that the water levels have peaked and expect them slowly to recede. Spokesman, Anthony Perry said “we are not expecting rain later in the week to have much impact, what we will see probably though is the rate of receding slowing up a little”. In Tewkesbury, one of the worst hit areas, water is receding at the rate of 400mm (4cm) a day. Mr Perry went on to say “Our advice to people is to look out for flood warnings. A lot of people have put in a lot of hours to deal with this situation and our thanks go to them all”.
Speaking on behalf of Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, Dr Shona Arora, asked people to “boil bowser water as a precautionary measure”. She said “Bowser water or bottled water should also be used for tooth brushing or cooking or anything else where you might ingest it”. Giving advice on basic sanitation, she said “Sanitation is an important issue we’re looking at. Please avoid flushing where possible and remember you can use ‘grey water’ such as from streams or rain or you can recycle water you have used for tooth-brushing or cooking to flush”.
Dr Brain warned the public that the Police would be enforcing the full power of the law on anyone found to be behaving irresponsibly with regards to bowser water. He went on to say “If people continue to show patience and forbearance and common sense and continue to conserve water supplies and listen to key message we will come through this successfully”. He added “Government is very strongly aware of our situation here and are very keen to help and assist”.
It is expected that all residents in Gloucestershire will have fully restored power and water withing 7 days.
