Cumbria weather: Homes flooded and travel disrupted

Rain has continued to fall overnight in Cumbria after about 40 properties were flooded and road and rail travel were hit on Thursday.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning, meaning some disruption is possible, and the Environment Agency has nine flood warnings in place.

On Thursday Honister Pass saw over 30cm (12in) of rain in a 24-hour period.

Motorists are warned that some roads are only passable with extreme care, and asked only to travel if necessary.

Train operators are asking people to avoid travelling on the West Coast Main Line and Cumbria Coastal routes, and there is no service between Barrow and Carlisle until the line has been inspected.

On Thursday a number of roads, including the A591 between Rydal and Grasmere and the A592 Patterdale Road, were flooded.

Karl Melville, the senior manager at the county council's highways team, said work had been going on all night to try to re-open as many roads as possible.

He said: "We have made some good progress [and] a lot of the roads that were closed are now passable with care.

"But obviously this does not take away the very clear advice of if you don't need to travel then don't travel."

The Environment Agency said 1,200 properties had been protected from flooding by its officers shutting flood gates and removing debris and blockages from grilles and watercourses.

But flood duty manager Ben Lukey urged people "to remain vigilant".

"Surface water and river flooding could still bring disruption to further communities," he warned.

Two holiday makers and their dog had to be rescued from their accommodation at Southwaite Mill by the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team.

With water chest high in places, volunteers brought them to safety in a raft.

Cockermouth and District Chamber of Trade chairman Andrew Marshall said huge insurance policy excesses introduced after the floods of 2009 and 2015 meant 90% of businesses would have to pay for any repairs themselves.

"Ever since then it's been nigh on impossible to get insurance," he said.

"If we get flooded this time we've got to pay for the rebuild and everything, which goes into hundreds of thousands."

Insurers have imposed excesses of up to £50,000 for business flooding claims in the area, Mr Marshall said.

After previous floods caused widespread damage to properties the government introduced a scheme to help residents get insurance "but it wasn't extended to business", he said.

Gillian Jackson owns holiday lets in Cockermouth, some of which have flooded.

"We've been through this before so it's just get up, get on with it," she said.

"Yes, it's upsetting but we've kind of got a bit hardened to it, got used to it, and we've just got to crack on and sort it out."

On Thursday afternoon, staff at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant were advised to speak to their bosses about returning home if possible, after checking road conditions.

In a message to employees, the company warned detours would be needed around road closures on the A595 at Duddon Bridge, Santon Bridge and Holmrook and that Millom was reported to be unreachable by road.

"Shift co-ordinators will maintain minimum safety manning levels in plants but others should head home once clarified with their line managers," it said.

Nine flood warnings (where flooding is expected) and 15 flood alerts (where it is possible) were in place on Friday morning.

In the 24 hours to 03:00 on Thursday Honister Pass saw 307.4mm (1ft) of rain, according to the Environment Agency.

The River Rothay was among those that burst their banks.

Transpennine Express has advised people not to travel on the West Coast Main Line unless essential and has lifted ticket restrictions until the weekend.

Phil James from Network Rail told BBC Radio Cumbria on Thursday that the heavy rain was "widespread" so it was "likely to affect many rail routes over the next few days" and urged people to check National Rail Enquiries for travel details.

Richard Warren from the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association warned people not to go fell walking during the current conditions.

He said: "It's half-term, Scafell Pike is a bit of a honey pot, there were a lot of walkers out on the road looking very, very wet, the car park had quite a few cars in, so people may have gone up Scafell Pike when the rivers were low.

"But when they come down they will find they won't be able to cross the rivers, so the message really is stay off the mountains."

Stewart Mounsey, the Environment Agency's flood risk manager for Cumbria said: "We expect river levels to be peaking this afternoon, the quicker responding ones, and then obviously the River Eden is even bigger so we'll see that responding Friday into Saturday."

Environment Agency teams were monitoring the effect of the rain on rivers, focusing on western and southern parts of the county, "making sure flood defences work", he said.

Alan Goodman, from the Met Office, said the rain was "on the wane slowly as today unfolds".

"There's still more steady rain to come but hopefully it will gradually fragment so the problems we have had on the roads should start to ease.

"But yes, there's been an awful lot of rain."

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