The Environment Agency has warned that flooding from major rivers could continue until Tuesday, amid widespread disruption caused by Storm Babet, which is posing a “risk to life” in some areas.
Three people have died since the storm hit the UK on Wednesday, while a search continues in Aberdeenshire after a report of a man becoming trapped in a vehicle in flood water.
Flooding has caused travel chaos across Britain’s rail networks, and train operators advised customers not to travel on Saturday.
The Environment Agency (EA) said three severe flood warnings were in place around the River Derwent in Derbyshire, meaning deep and fast-flowing water carries a significant risk of death or serious injury, as well as serious disruption to local communities.
London’s King’s Cross station was forced to close due to overcrowding after passengers were warned not to travel by rail. Network Rail said crowd control measures had been put in place at King’s Cross due to disruption to LNER services.
The station reopened on Saturday afternoon and temporary crowd control measures were lifted, Network Rail later announced.
The Met Office lifted the red weather warning that was in place in parts of Scotland, but warned that conditions there remain treacherous. Amber and yellow warnings are still in force.
More than 100 people have been rescued from flooded areas, while dozens of people spent the night in emergency accommodation and about 4,000 people across the UK were without power at one stage on Saturday.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said it had restored power to 36,000 of its customers by 4.45pm on Saturday after a “day of progress”. It is now working to “reconnect the remaining 700 properties by the end of tonight”, it said.
More than half the staff manning a North Sea drilling platform were airlifted to other sites after several of its anchors came loose during the storm.
Coastguard helicopters were called upon to move 45 non-essential workers from the Stena Spey to neighbouring platforms and to Sumburgh on the Shetland Islands on Saturday.
Stena Drilling said four out of eight anchors became detached from the drilling unit because of the severe weather. The rig is located about 146 miles east of Aberdeen.
Leeds Bradford airport had to be closed on Friday after a passenger plane that tried to land in high winds was evacuated after it skidded off the runway. The airport had reopened on Saturday afternoon.
Across England, there were more than 280 flood warnings on Friday for parts of the north-east, Yorkshire, the north-west, East Anglia, the south-west and the Midlands. On Saturday the torrential rainfall moved back northwards to eastern and northern Scotland , where some places had already seen about a month and a half’s worth of rain during the storm, the Met Office said.
A man in his 60s died on Friday after getting caught in fast-flowing flood water in the town of Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. A falling tree hit a van on Thursday near Forfar in Angus on Thursday evening, killing the 56-year-old driver, and a 57-year-old woman died on Thursday after being swept into a river in the region.
Hundreds of people were evacuated for their own safety from Brechin, Tannadice and Finavon in eastern Scotland, with about 60 people refusing to leave and eventually needing to be rescued. One officer told the BBC the flooded area was a “scene of carnage”.
One Brechin resident, Kim Clark, could not bring herself to abandon her home after the council asked people to leave. She told BBC Scotland News: “We’ve no longer got a river, it’s now in my garden and right into my house. The street is now the river.
“I’m waiting for the fire brigade to come and get me. They’re getting my elderly neighbour first. She was screaming in her bungalow. The water is right in my house. It’s come right up. I’ve lost everything.”
Another resident, Bartosz Kaczkowski, told Sky News he had stayed to protect his home: “I was just wringing and wringing water, 15, 16 buckets.”
Suffolk and Derbyshire county councils also declared major incidents. Clive Stanbrook, area manager at Derbyshire fire and rescue service, told BBC Breakfast that more than 100 people had been rescued on Friday, including 20 people from a care home in Duffield.
A further 18 houses were evacuated in a village called Ironville, again in the north of the county.
The rural village of Debenham in Suffolk was cut off by flooding, residents said, while tractors were being used to rescue people caught in the flood water.
An emergency centre was set up at a local leisure centre, where about 50 people slept on crash mats on Friday night.
In north-east England, a lighthouse at the mouth of the River Tyne lost its distinctive red and white dome after being lashed by strong winds and rough seas.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Julie Foley, the director of flood strategy and adaptation at the Environment Agency, warned people not to drive through flood waters and implored people to “really consider their travel plans”.
The storm also caused havoc across Europe, including in Denmark. The Danish Meteorological Institute wrote on social media that it expected water levels “to exceed the 100-year event in several places”, while in Germany, some streets and squares were flooded in the cities of Flensburg, Kiel and Wismar on the Baltic coast.
