Get ready to flee floods

THUNDERSTORMS... BUT DROUGHT SPREADS

- Steph Spyro

MUDSLIDES and flash flooding battered parts of the country yesterday as torrential rain hammered the parched ground.

And with more yellow warnings of thunderstorms in place today, people living in “low-lying properties” were warned to have their valuables “ready to go” due to the high risk of flooding.

But, despite millions of households being hit by or facing hosepipe bans in the coming days, and large areas of England in drought, the deluge has been dubbed “the wrong kind of rain”.

The recent intense heat and lack of rainfall has left the baked earth too hard to absorb water.

Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir said: “What we’re looking for is sort of continuous rain, moderate rain, rather than this incredibly intense burst.”

She warned: “For properties such as those built on a floodplain, there is a risk of flooding.

“Get all your documents, your mobile phone, your passport, all those things you don’t want to be damaged by floodwater and make sure they’re ready to go or on a higher level of your house.”