North England hit by flash floods

Heavy rain is causing flash floods across much of the Midlands and northern England.

West Mercia police have reported flooding in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The Environment Agency says Morpeth in Northumberland is under water but flood waters are receding in Wales where one person was killed on Friday.

The Agency has issued more than eighty flood warnings in England and Wales, five of which are severe.

In the Pickering area of North Yorkshire several properties and roads have been flooded after the local beck burst its banks.

Fire crews have been on hand to pump out houses and residents have been told to move possessions upstairs.

West Mercia Constabulary has urged motorists to be cautious.

I think our catchments and the soils are very wet and saturated, and river levels are therefore responding very quickly Phil Rothwell The Environment Agency Teenager killed in Wales Mopping up begins after flooding

Chief Superintendent Viv Howells of West Mercia Constabulary said: "We are continuing to monitor the situation, and are liaising closely with our partner organisations.

"Some localised flooding is being experienced and there is a large amount of surface water on the roads. However, there is no cause for major concern."

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has two flood warnings in place, one for Jed Water and one for Blackadder Water and Langton Burn.

According to the BBC weather centre the rain could exceed 50mm in some places.

The teenager who was killed in Wales was in Powys when the 4X4 car she was travelling in left a flooded forestry track north of the Llyn Brianne reservoir and overturned into a river.

Casualties were flown to Bronglais hospital, Aberystwyth

She was airlifted to Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth - along with a male and another female both suffering from hypothermia - but died after arrival.

Police said the three people were tourists from south-east England and that one of the pair suffering from hypothermia had to walk several miles to a farmhouse to get help.

The BBC Wales correspondent Colette Hume says river levels in Wales are going down and that the biggest problem for people now is clearing up after the rain on Friday.

She added that many people in the affected areas have no insurance and they will be keeping their fingers crossed that there is no more rain.

Dee Ann Palmer, whose house in Ynsboeth in mid Glamorgan has been devastated, says she has lost everything and since she has no insurance it will cost her "an arm and a leg" to replace her furniture and kitchen appliances

She told BBC News: "No insurance at all because we've been flooded before and its going to cost an arm and a leg for me to have any insurance.

"The council promised me when I first moved into the property seven and a half years ago that it would never ever happen again, they had solved it.... and they obviously haven't'."

The BBC Weather Centre said some places suffered more than a month's worth of rainfall in 24 hours on Friday. Some 40mm (1.6ins) of rain fell in Caerphilly and on Exmoor.

Phil Rothwell, from the Environment Agency, says the wet summer hasn't helped the situation.

"I think our catchments and the soils are very wet and saturated, and river levels are therefore responding very quickly.

"The soil isn't absorbing the water it might, and so we're seeing these very rapid rises in water that we saw in south Wales and Wales generally, which is causing a lot of problems," he said.

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