Many stranded motorists were forced to sit on top of their vehicles after being trapped by the rapidly rising waters.The worst-hit areas were Sussex, Kent and Hampshire, with East Sussex being struck particularly hard. Emergency services there said the position was as bad as any they had seen. Dave Izod, a spokesman for East Sussex fire brigade, said: “I would say we are now at full stretch Every crew we have is involved in one way or another These floods are among the worst we have ever seen. We have hundreds of flooded homes and many roads are impassable.”The flooding was caused by ceaseless rain overnight on Wednesday, which added to already overflowing rivers – a predicament created by one of the wettest Septembers on record.
The Met Office said that 3.9in (93mm) of rain had fallen in some places in 24 hours and that October’s average monthly rainfall had already been exceeded.The Environment Agency last night issued severe flood warnings – its most serious rating, signalling imminent danger to life and property and putting people on evacuation stand-by – for six rivers. These were the Uck and Ouse in Sussex, the Bourne on the Hampshire-Dorset border, and the Buelt, the Tiesse and Lesser Tiesse in Kent There were a further 47 flood warnings and 97 flood watches. A coastal flood warning was issued for Scarborough, North Yorkshire.”It is pretty bad. It is worse than the Easter floods of 1998, which everyone remembers,” said a spokesman for the Environment Agency. “We are warning people in these areas to take precautions now – move cars, livestock and pets, be ready to turn off gas and electricity and have warm clothes, rubber boots and provisions ready as evacuation may occur at short notice.”In Uckfield, Sussex, that evacuation involved RNLI volunteers from Poole, Shoreham, Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings who helped to rescue people trapped by the flooded river Uck and who faced an incoming flood tide.Among those trapped was Glyn Davies, 49, who said: “We are quite lucky as we are reasonably high up, but just one minute walk away everything is flooded so we are stuck here, you can’t get anywhere.”Other Sussex towns badly flooded were Hassocks, Haywards Heath, Goring, Arundel and Steyning, while Etchingham station near Hastings was evacuated because of flooding.
The car park was so deep in water that about 30 cars were floating. Residents of Lewes were also evacuated while the town’s Harvey’s brewery collapsed because of the weight of water.Sussex Police urged all drivers to stay at home as main roads, including the A21, A22, A26, A27, A227 and A272 were submerged.Large parts of Kent were also underwater. Claire de Garston, landlady of the Chequers Inn in Lamberhurst, said floodwater was pouring through the windows, ruining the major refurbishment work they had just completed. She had just spent £20,000 after the pub was hit by flooding last Christmas Day.”It is so heartbreaking and frustrating to watch all your hard work ruined,” she said.
“We’ve been pumping water out of the cellar for two days but it’s hopeless.”Stuart Farmer, the RSPCA’s South East regional superintendent, warned that all animals and livestock were in potential danger “Any animals outdoors are at risk so every precaution should be taken,” he said.Ewen McCallum, head of forecasting at the Met Office, predicted that the rain should have started to ease by this morning.* The search for a 13-year-old girl who was swept away while “river walking” in a swollen beck during a school trip on Tuesday was broadened to include three police forces spanning 50 miles yesterday.Hannah Black and 14-year-old Rochelle Cauvet were among a party of 15 youngsters and two teachers from Royds School in Oulton, near Leeds, walking up the middle of the river at Stainforth Beck, North Yorkshire. Rochelle’s body was recovered by a member of an underwater search unit on Wednesday Police have started an investigation.. The number of asylum seekers applying to stay in Britain last year rose by 55 per cent, according to latest figures. The number of asylum seekers applying to stay in Britain last year rose by 55 per cent, according to latest figures.
The Home Office statistics were boosted by a large increase in the number of refugees from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in particular its troubled southern province of Kosovo.A total of 71,100 asylum applications were received over the year – with 11,465 coming from Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro. Nearly 80 per cent of the 7,800 applications granted were to refugees from Kosovo and the two Yugoslav republics.More refugees entered the United Kingdom from Kosovo under a special evacuation procedure, which lasted for 12 months.Of the 4,409 people who arrived under this procedure, more than 3,300 had returned by the end of July this year.A further 2,500 asylum seekers from throughout the world were not recognised as refugees but were granted exceptional leave to remain, allowing them to apply to settle after four years in the UK.Another 11,100 were granted leave under a special backlog clearance exercise.The speeding up of the decision process means the backlog is continuing to diminish, said a Home Office spokesman.”We have already made 73,000 decisions on cases in the first eight months of this year,” the spokesman said.There were 33,700 decisions in total last year.The majority of applicants were young, with an average age of just 27, and two-thirds of them were male.There was also an increase in the number of asylum seekers removed or who voluntarily left the UK, up to 7,600.Asylum applications to European Union countries rose for the third consecutive year, with Germany continuing to receive the highest number of applications, followed by the UK.The figures are likely to fuel debate in the wake of this week’s Runnymede Trust report on multiculturalism in Britain. The report called for better financial and legal support for asylum seekers.. A woman accused of blackmailing a retired football international considered herself akin to dominant female characters in the American soap Dynasty and the BBC sitcom The Good Life, Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday.
A woman accused of blackmailing a retired football international considered herself akin to dominant female characters in the American soap Dynasty and the BBC sitcom The Good Life, Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday.
Carolyn Pick, 36, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, identified with Margot Leadbetter, the bossy, affected housewife played by Penelope Keith in The Good Life.”I like the best of everything; I like fine wine, champagne, smoked salmon and caviare, the best kind of houses, the best kind of cars, like BMWs and Jaguars, and I do like going to beautiful restaurants,” Ms Pick told the star, who remains a figure in the world of sport. Ms Pick has pleaded not guilty to two charges of blackmail.In tape recordings to the former footballer she also compared herself to Alexis Colby – a character played by Joan Collins in Dynasty who would “get revenge on any man that got in her way” – before saying her nickname for the ex-footballer was JR (Ewing), the character played by Larry Hagman in Dallas. Ms Pick said she and the former footballer had had “telephone sex” on two occasions and that she wouldrelease a tape of their conversation to the media if he did not “correct matters”.Publication of the former footballer’s identity has been forbidden by Judge David Hodson, as is customary in blackmail cases, but it did surface on the internet yesterday, forcing the judge to incorporate the internet in his contempt-of-court order.On day three of Ms Pick’s trial the jury heard four more hours of the tapes, the rambling, eccentric contents of which have already visibly amused the court this week On one tape Ms Pick said: “My nickname for you is JR. You do tell lies, like, don’t you? You’re ruthless and very good at putting on an act in public; a very good actor.
