Cornwall floods force evacuation of 100 homes

The St Austell and St Blazey areas of Cornwall experienced flash floods this morning following heavy rain and winds.

The RAF scrambled two helicopters and the local police and fire service are working with the council and the Environment Agency as the rescue operation got underway in flood-hit Cornwall.

There have been no reports of injuries caused by the flooding but major property damage is expected. Around 100 homes were evacuated earlier today.

Despite residents’ fears, high tide this afternoon did not cause much further flooding, but an Environment Agency spokesman told Channel 4 News that further rain could cause more problems.

Cameron's flood defences claim not quite waterproof
Whichever way you look at this one, it seems Mr Cameron was wrong to say spending on flood defences was "protected", says FactCheck.

Yes, they have committed to spending around £2bn over the next four years. But overall that’s an 11 per cent cut to Defra’s budget for flood defences compared to the last four years.

Read more FactCheck: Cameron's flood defences claim not quite waterproof

“There are 10 flood warnings and 15 flood watches still in place,” he said. “The tide has not made much difference but we are expecting further rain overnight and we are keeping a close eye on it.”

Keep up to date on Cornwall flood warnings on the Environment Agency website

Hard and frightening lessons 
I'm standing next to the 700 year old stone bridge that connects both sides of Lostwithiel across the river Fowey. The river level is above the arches of the bridge, wrote Alex Thomson in Cornwall. 

On the upstream side signs of debris, branches, tree trunks and assorted muck are being slammed against the parapet. The concern here is that as the tide subsides this magnificent structure may become unstable after all these centuries. 

Just the latest concern to hit this town in the last few hours. People here learning a hard - even frightening - lesson in the same way that the people of Boscastle, on Cornwall's north coast, have had to do in recent years. 

The floods are mainly a surface water problem, exacerbated by blocked drains – and not caused by overflow from the rivers or the sea. While serious, they are not on the scale of the serious flash flooding which hit Boscastle, on Cornwall’s north coast, in 2004.

Environment Agency warnings went out about the risks yesterday.

‘A river running through the streets’

David Lormer, who owns a furniture shop in St Austell, told Channel 4 News his shop had been hit by 10 inches of water.

He said: “When I got to the shop, it was like a river running through the streets. I opened up and there were eight to 10 inches of water…Most of the water has subsided now but it’s left us with a big clean up operation now, just as we were getting ready for Christmas, our busiest time.

“People have been fantastic though, really helpful.”

Local tourist attraction the Eden Project has closed as a result of the flooding.

Read more residents’ stories on the Cornwall floods

Flood defence was one of many areas of public spending which saw cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review in October. The Coalition pledged £2bn from 2011-2015, compared to £2.15bn spent from 2008-2011.

The Environment Agency spokesman declined to comment on the wisdom of cutting funding, telling Channel 4 News: “Funding is an issue for the government. It’s a political issue. We will continue to protect the UK’s communities as best we can with the money we’ve got.”

'Phenomenal' rainfall
People are telling me they couldn't believe how a trickle of water in the street - perhaps a couple of inches - could become a couple of feet so quickly, wrote Alex Thomson in Cornwall.

But overhead the night's sky was delivering the same deluge as Boscastle. We are talking phenomenal rainfall here. Two inches at least in as many hours. Astonishing levels of rainfall coming into an area where the hillsides are steep, the land already saturated, and in that situation small country lanes can become canals delivering hundreds of tonnes of water as they converge down to villages and towns in this part of the world.

So apart from the flooded river and the odd pool of muddy water there is relatively little sign of what has happening here in the early hours. Local people are telling me that although they had warnings of heavy rain, the culvert and drains were blocked in some cases by the autumn debris of leaves and vegetation. They say that in at least once incident environment agency flood pumps were not turned on until about 6am, by which time much of the damage was done. 

Why Cornwall again?
Cornwall suffered serious flash flooding in 2004 at Boscastle. Military helicopters airlifted around 100 people to safety, and 58 properties were flooded, including four businesses.

Senior forecaster at Weather Commerce, David Roberts, told Channel 4 News the reason Cornwall has been deluged with heavy rain and thus flooded is because of the positioning of the jet stream in the Atlantic moving south.

He said: “We’ve had a conveyor belt of Atlantic depressions, and this is one of several over the past couple of weeks. We had one last Friday which was a very intense depression and gave us gales, prior to that there was lots of rain in the south on the Thursday, so today’s floods are simply a topping up of the water table.

Most of our weather comes from the Atlantic, so it’s to be expected that Cornwall and the south west will be hit. David Roberts

“Most of our weather comes from the Atlantic, so it’s to be expected that Cornwall and the south west will be hit.

“The difference is from normal Atlantic depressions is that this has come a bit further south than normal. This is to do with the positioning of the jet stream, which usually moves the depression between Iceland and the Faroes. This time the jet stream has been slightly more south, hence the more intensive deluge in Cornwall.

“It can depend on high pressure and other factors, but in this case the key is the positioning of the jet stream.

“This heavy rain will continue through the day into the night and the South West will have more showers tomorrow but then a drying period, before more rain over the weekend. The Environment Agency has deployed teams to check river flood defences and to assist emergency services with the recovery process.”

A spokesman told Channel 4 News: “The joint Environment Agency/Met Office Flood Forecasting Centre issued an extreme rainfall alert yesterday afternoon to give emergency responders and local authorities advance warning of the heavy rain overnight, which has mainly resulted in flooding from drains and surface water run-off.

“This is a serious incident and our thoughts are with those people whose homes have flooded.”