Soldier missing as floods hit large swathe of Britain
Pastor Dale Morgan
Soldier missing as floods hit large swathe of Britain*
LONDON, June 16 (AFP) Jun 16, 2007
Floods hit areas of north-west and central England, Wales and Northern
Ireland on Friday, disrupting car and rail traffic and leading to the
disappearance of a soldier on exercises, officials said.
Searches continued for the 17-year-old soldier who fell into a
fast-flowing stream swollen by overnight rains while he was on a march
in North Yorkshire, which along with the English Midlands region was
among the worst areas hit.
The army rescued two other soldiers who were swept away by the waters at
the same time.
An army spokesman said 50 soldiers undertaking "a routine exercise"
crossed the river before the accidents occurred.
In the village of Water Orton in Warwickshire, around 40 night-shift
workers remained stranded Friday afternoon at a factory surrounded by
nearly six feet (1.82 metres) of water.
They found shelter in the first floor of the building after the normally
benign River Tame, which cuts through the village of 3,500 people,
overflowed its banks.
Meanwhile, firefighters in South Yorkshire received hundreds of calls --
200 between midnight and 8:00 am Friday -- to deal with homes that were
flooded following more than 24 hours of relentless rains.
In Northern Ireland, firefighters received more than 400 calls overnight
and went to the aid of about 40 people who were stranded in their
vehicles because of rising waters.
More than two inches (five centimetres) of rain fell on the country in
two hours, causing sewers to overflow.
The self-rule government in Northern Ireland, which was restored in May
after a suspension of four and a half years, approved setting up an
emergency fund of five million pounds (7.4 million euros, 10 million
dollars) to provide aid to flood victims.
Britain's Met Office forecast a new alert for heavy rains later Friday
over Wales and western England.
The rains, which also washed out play in the third cricket Test between
England and the West Indies at Chester-le-Street, in northern England,
are set to continue through the weekend.