July 26, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 10, 1428

OXFORD, July 25: Further water surges were expected in southern England on Wednesday as Britain’s worst floods in 60 years saw evacuations, the threat of power cuts and a lack of freshwater for thousands.

Tributaries feeding the River Thames engulfed several areas in the university city of Oxford overnight. Some 250 homes were evacuated and residents given emergency shelter at a nearby football stadium.

But despite fears that an electricity substation supplying the historic city centre would be submerged, police said widespread blackouts were not now expected, although there had been localised power cuts.

Downstream, the London commuter town of Reading, the royal castle city of Windsor and Henley, famous for its annual rowing regatta, were among other places threatened as river levels were expected to peak in the next 48 hours.

Officials said six severe flood warnings remained in place, but weather forecasters predicted more rain particularly on Thursday, which could further increase river levels.

In a visit to flood-hit areas, Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked emergency crews about their battle to prevent floodwaters from submerging the Walham electricity substation in the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire. “You’re doing a great job,” he told them.

The emergency services managed to restore power to more than 48,000 homes in the Gloucestershire, where the town of Tewkesbury was cut off by the rising waters of the River Severn.

But although river levels there were said to have peaked, and even dropped in some places, allowing a clean-up to begin, utility Severn Trent said mains water supplies in the county could be off for at least two weeks.

That has triggered emergency measures for the 140,000 homes and more than 350,000 people affected amid concern that sewage mixed with floodwater could pose health hazards, Gloucestershire County Council said.

Severn Trent has set up 900 mobile water tankers in Tewkesbury and the nearby cities of Cheltenham and Gloucester, while the army has been drafted in to provide four million litres of bottled drinking water.

The council said 1,300 portable toilets were being provided for vulnerable people in places like care homes.

Mr Brown told parliament earlier that his government would do “everything we can to get (water) supplies restored as quickly as possible,” pledging a review of Britain’s utilities infrastructure, drainage and flood defences.

The floods in central and western England come less than a month after large swathes of northern England were hit by massive downpours that caused flash floods, cut off towns and affected transport networks.

In the latest cases, rivers topped levels reached during floods in 1947.—AFP