A flood warning remains in place in Wigan this morning (Thursday) as the region continues to deal with the fallout from the new year’s deluge.
Up to three inches of rain fell in just 24 hours in some areas, from New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day. Rivers burst their banks with streets submerged and water sent gushing into homes.
Emergency services declared a major incident as hundreds of people had to be rescued from cut-off buildings, including apartment block Meadow Mill in Stockport and the Britannia Country House Hotel in south Manchester.
At the height of the chaos on Wednesday, 55 flood warnings – which means flooding is ‘expected’ and that those in the affected should ‘act now’ – were in place along with 15 less serious flood alerts.
Early this morning 16 warnings remained in force around Greater Manchester and Warrington including for the River Bollin and River Mersey.
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However these have now been removed by the Environment Agency (EA). Just one warning remains in force here, that being for the River Douglas in Wigan, which reached a height of almost two metres yesterday. Flooding is possible when it goes above 1.79m.
“Our incident response staff are in the area and Wigan flood storage basin is in use” the EA said. The affected areas include properties on Eleanor Street, the Bus Depot, Baker Street, Poolstock and the Robin Park area.
A less severe amber flood alert is also in place for the Upper River Douglas, from Horwich Star Vale to Appley Bridge – including Adlington, Blackrod, Wigan, Standish, and Gathurst.
Greater Manchester Police said last night that there had been ‘ localised flooding across the borough’ of Wigan and that a council refuge centre had opened at Robin Park.