Storm Desmond: Floods, power outages hit northwest England
By Tiffany Ap and Tim Hume, CNN
Updated 1511 GMT (2311 HKT) December 7, 2015
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| cnn.com |
(CNN)British engineers are scrambling to restore electricity to thousands of homes in northwestern England after flooding knocked out power supplies across the region.
Storm Desmond dumped record levels of rain on northern England and Scotland over the weekend, flooding areas of Cumbria and Lancashire counties and prompting authorities to call in the armed forces to help evacuate people.
The waters inundated neighborhoods, train lines and sports grounds, and knocked out electricity to more than 60,000 homes.
By Monday morning, most of the supply was restored, with only 2,957 homes still cut off, according to power company Electricity North West.
Engineers, working with emergency services, were using boats to try to restore service, said the company.
"We want to reassure our customers in Lancaster and Cumbria that we are doing everything we possibly can to access our substations, assess the damage caused by severe flooding, and restore supplies," said Mark Williamson, operations director for Electricity North West.
Body found
Police said Monday they had found a body in the River Kent, Kendal, in Cumbria, and were working to recover it. They had received reports Sunday that an elderly man had fallen into the water.
Reception centers have been opened to shelter people who have left their homes because of flooding, Cumbria police said.
Forty-six severe flood warnings, indicating a risk to life, remain in place in England and Wales.
More than 4,000 properties are estimated to be flooded in Cumbria, according to authorities in the county.
The flooding has prompted government officials to hold emergency response meetings.
British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that he was preparing to visit badly affected areas Monday.
Schools closed
In Cumbria, the most heavily affected county, the local council website says dozens of schools will remain closed Monday and are not expected to reopen at least until Tuesday. The power cuts have also closed at least 10 schools in Lancashire.
The bad weather also shut down seven train lines Sunday, according to the Northern Rail site, with many of those lines not expected to be operable for days.
洪水肆虐北英格蘭使上千住家斷電，工程人員緊急修復中。
這場風暴在這週末降下了大規模的雨量，包括北英格蘭及蘇格蘭地區，造成坎布里亞郡和蘭開夏郡淹水，迫使當局請求部隊協助撤離居民。
洪水淹沒社區，火車軌道及運動場，並阻斷了60,000戶以上住家的電力。
根據西北電力公司統計，直到星期一早上，大部分的電力已經恢復，尚餘2,957戶未修復。
電力公司說，工程人員帶著緊急設備，使用船艇四處修復。「我們向兩郡地區的客戶保證，盡一切努力連結變電設備，評估洪水帶來的嚴重損失，盡快復電。」公司營運負責人說。
發現遺體
警方星期一發現坎布里亞郡肯特河上有一具遺體並進行搶救。星期天他們曾收到線報指出一位年長男士掉進河中。
坎布里亞郡警方表示，收容中心已開放給因洪水肆虐而緊急撤離的居民們供其避難。
據生命危險系統顯示，在英格蘭及威爾士還有46處洪水警報。
另當局指出，坎布里亞郡估計超過4,000處房地被淹沒。
洪災也使得政府辦公室緊急召開會議因應。英國首相卡麥隆在推特上表示星期一他將會勘察災區。
校區關閉
受創最嚴重的坎布里亞郡，在當地網站表示星期一仍有幾十間學校關閉，最快要等到星期二才能重新開放，而蘭開夏郡也因斷電影響至少10間學校。
星期天也因天候不佳停駛了七條火車路線，根據北方鐵路局網站表示，近幾天都無法恢復通車。
scramble (v.) 緊急行動
inundate (v.) 淹沒
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