More flooding on its way as Storm Frank approaches
Severe rainfall has caused major flooding problems for large parts of northern England. According to the Environment Agency website (29 Dec), there are 9 severe flooding warnings in place for the North East and North West combined, along with 42 flood warnings and 58 flood alerts for England and Wales.
Andrew Clark, NFU Director of Policy, said staff in the affected regions are monitoring the situation and offering help and advice to any members who had been affected by the heavy rain and had contacted them.
“We are aware that there are serious flooding problems in parts of the North of England and Wales. This is a fast moving situation and at present we are working to assess the full extent of the damage. Heavy rain falling on top of land that is already saturated from the impact of a succession of winter storms makes flooding more likely.
“The NFU in the regions are monitoring the situation and offering farmers help and advice where they can. It is much too early to say what the full impact of any flooding will be. We will only be able to get an idea of this once the flood waters start to subside and the true impact can be assessed.”
The NFU has produced a newsletter for members affected by the flooding in the North East and North West.
It contains information on where advice and funding is available to help with the recovery operation. The newsletter also contains key contact details for assistance.
The NFU welcomes a lot of the pragmatic decisions government agencies such as the Environment Agency and the Rural Payments Agency have taken to allow farmers to focus on the flood recovery operation.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: "Yesterday we saw more settled weather and some water levels receding. However, thousands of families and businesses across the north of the country will have endured another devastating day and, with Storm Frank forecast for this evening, we remain committed to doing everything we can to help those communities affected.
Environment Agency teams are deployed in large numbers in our worst impacted and most at risk communities and I will be chairing a COBR meeting again this morning to ensure that everything possible is being done.
Communities across Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire are being urged to remain vigilant for rain expected later today. Flood waters have been receding slowly across flood hit areas, but rain will be falling on saturated ground, bringing the potential for further significant flooding."