Thousands of flood victims were trapped in their homes and running out of fresh water and food. Emergency services battled to help them in scenes that could have come from a third world disaster. Soldiers and firemen delivered food parcels and set up soup kitchens in towns cut off by some of the worst flooding in 50 years. Huge swathes of central England became seas of muddy water after torrential rainfall. The RAF and coastguards were drafted in to lift hundreds of people to safety in one of the biggest peacetime rescue operations. Some 350,000 people in the Tewkesbury, Gloucester and Cheltenham area were warned that their water supplies would be cut after a treatment plant was flooded.Around 600 of water tankers are being sent in, with military help. Emergency services were also battling to stop floodwater reaching a major electricity substation on the outskirts of Gloucester which supplies 500,000 people. There were fears of further misery ahead, as rivers swelled to within inches of bursting their banks. A total of 61 flood warnings - 26 severe - were in place. As the scale of the damage emerged, anger mounted at the way flood defences failed - or were never put in place - despite several days' warning of severe weather and the experience of last month's floods. There was also growing frustration at the way developers have been allowed to build in flood plains, putting families at risk of heartbreaking deluges. (Daily Mail)
