Page 9 - Aruba Today
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WORLD NEWS 9
Monday 28 December 2015
UK military helps combat flooding as it spreads to cities
GREGORY KATZ ments in York, 200 miles Members of a Mountain Rescue team check on properties after the River Foss and Ouse burst
Associated Press (320 kilometers) north of
LONDON (AP) — British London, where 3,500 prop- their banks, in York, England, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015. Hundreds more people were told to leave
Prime Minister David Cam- erties are judged to be
eron sent hundreds more at risk. Emergency crews their homes in northern England Sunday as Prime Minister David Cameron said more troops
troops into northern Eng- worked extra shifts to try to
land on Sunday to help restore power to roughly would be deployed to protect peoples’ lives and property after weeks of heavy rainfall caused
exhausted residents and 7,500 blacked out homes
emergency workers fight in the greater Manchester widespread flooding. (Anna Gowthorpe/PA via AP)
back rising river waters that and Lancashire areas.
have inundated towns and Environment Secretary Liz river levels also threatened small fire believed to have urged residents to remain
cities after weeks of heavy Truss said flood protection downtown Manchester been caused by the flood- vigilant because more “se-
rain. systems put in place in re- and police dealt with a ing. vere” flooding is expected
Cameron said the flood- cent years were unable to ruptured gas main and The Environment Agency overnight and Monday.q
ing is “unprecedented” cope with the record-high
and vowed to do every- river levels.
thing possible to protect “In Lancashire every single
people and their property river was at a record-high,”
as the damage spread to she said. “In Yorkshire we
the major cities York, Leeds have seen some rivers a
and Manchester. He said meter (yard) higher than
protective systems and they have ever been be-
contingency plans will be fore. Clearly, in the light of
reviewed because the fre- that, we will be reviewing
quency of such extreme our flood defenses.”
weather events seems to Several hundred peole
be on the rise. had been evacuated the
Weeks of persistent rainfall day before in the West
has saturated the ground Yorkshire and Lancashire
and swollen the rivers to re- regions and officials said
cord levels, leaving entire thousands had lost power.
swathes of northern Eng- The number of people af-
land, and smaller parts of fected continues to grow
Wales and Scotland, vul- as flooding spreads and
nerable. Several hundred impacts cities as well as vil-
flood warnings remain in lages and towns.
effect. A picturesque 200-year-old
There have been no fatali- pub, The Waterside, in the
ties or serious injuries report- greater Manchester area,
ed, but hundreds of peo- collapsed and part of the
ple have been evacuated structure was swept away
from houses and apart- by the River Irwell. Rising
Spain deploys aircraft to combat wildfires
MADRID (AP) — The gov- The regional government
ernment says it has de- of northern Cantabria said
ployed firefighting aircraft fire crews were combat-
to combat over 40 wildfires ting some 25 fires while the
in remote mountaintop government of northwest-
locations in northern and ern Asturias said half of the
central Spain amid unsea- 16 fires within its boundaries
sonably warm weather were being brought under
and low rainfall. control Sunday.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Low rainfall during a warm
Food and Environment autumn season has left
said in a statement Sunday some of Spain’s main res-
it has sent specialist aircraft ervoirs less than a third full,
to the regions of Asturias with one supplying Almeria
and Avila in a bid to dowse at only 9.4 percent of its to-
outbreaks there. tal capacity.q
