Travel chaos hits commuters for second day after flash floods and month’s worth of rain falls in 24 hours

24 September 2024, 05:50

Commuters are experiencing another morning of closures and delays after torrential battered the UK on Monday.

Commuters continue to face travel issues in parts of the country on Tuesday despite a respite from heavy rain in most parts.

The weekend saw devastating flash flooding – falling heaviest in Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire – leaving roads entirely submerged, causing widespread travel disruption, and damage to properties.

The Met Office warned that northeast of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will initially face the wettest conditions on Tuesday, bringing up to 40mm of rain.

National Highways has said it expects the A421 in Bedfordshire to remain closed on Tuesday in both directions between A6 Bedford and M1 J13 near Marston Moretaine due to severe flooding, and that it “cannot provide a timeline for the road to reopen”.

Meanwhile, the northbound A5 between the A421 in Bletchley and Great Holm at Milton Keynes was closed by rising water levels on Tuesday morning after one lane had been opened overnight.

London Northwestern Railway said its Marston Vale line, which operates services between Bedford and Bletchley, is set to be suspended until September 30.

Showers will continue across the rest of England and Wales, but will not be as heavy as the rain across the weekend.

And conditions will worsen again on Thursday as “heavy and persistent” showers fall across the country.

The southeast of England will likely see “slow-moving thundery downpours”, similar to the torrential conditions seen over the weekend, the Met Office said.

The forecaster is also warning that temperatures are set to plummet by the end of the week as wintery conditions fast approach.

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It comes as the Environment Agency said at least 45 properties have flooded across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Kent and the Home Counties. Some 17 flood warnings were issued for England.

Bedfordshire Police said it had closed off part of Dunstable High Street due to “substantial flooding”, with footage shared on social media showing cars battling high water around the Saracen’s Head pub.

Some schools in Bedfordshire have also closed due to the torrent of showers leaving stagnant weather.

The Overground and some Tube lines in London have been partly suspended. The District Line is not running between Turnham Green and Richmond, while the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines are suspended between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge.

There is no Overground service between South Acton and Richmond, and there are also severe delays on the Bakerloo line, and on the Metropolitan line between Rayners Lane and Harrow-on-the-Hill.

London Fire Brigade said its 999 control officers have taken around 350 calls to flooding across the capital. Firefighters have attended incidents in areas such as Ruislip, Uxbridge, Wimbledon and Carshalton.

The service said these included rescuing people trapped in cars, assisting people from their homes and responding to flooding in underground stations, roadways, residences and commercial properties.

AFC Wimbledon and Newcastle’s Carabao Cup third-round meeting on Tuesday has been called off due to “extensive overnight flooding” at the Cherry Red Records Stadium. The Dons’ stadium, which also appears to have a sinkhole in the pitch, is now closed as a result, with a rescheduled date for the tie yet to be confirmed.

Rain warnings were in place all weekend with a fresh yellow alert coming into effect at midnight to last all of Monday, covering parts of Wales, much of the south of England, the Midlands and into north-west England and Yorkshire.

An amber warning came into force at 5am and will last until 11.59pm. This includes Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire.

Some affected areas will see 60-80mm of rain through Monday – while a few places could see in excess of 120mm, the Met Office said.

Forecasters also said there may be more warnings in the week ahead.

Amid the rain on Sunday, dozens of people rushed to a Bedfordshire farm to save animals after it was hit by flooding with some wading into chest-height water to drag sheep to safety.

Joanna Johnson started to break down in tears as she told the PA news agency how 50 neighbours turned up at Moreteyne’s Retreat in Marston Moretaine at 8pm on Sunday in response to an emergency WhatsApp message she had sent.

The 54-year-old said her miniature ponies had to swim out of the flood water and the sheep were dragged through to safety.

Members of the community and emergency services were helping at the farm until about 4am, building temporary pens for some of the animals by the roadside and finding short-term places for the others, including a school playground for two ponies.

Ms Johnson said parts of the farm had flooded in January this year but this time the whole farm was underwater.

She said: “We’ve spent the last five years building the place up, we opened it up for free for the villagers after Covid, we were hoping to do that more often as there’s so many families that can’t afford to go to a farm.

“We flooded in January this year and the fire brigade got all the animals out, they were here for 12 hours.

“Yesterday it was like a river coming off the A421 and then the pond burst and within 15 minutes the entire farm was under water.

“I put a message out online and the villagers flocked here so fast.

“The miniature ponies had to swim out. The only way we could save the sheep was to pull them out the water. I felt so helpless.”