LONDON, Jan 4 ― The UK braced for more flooding as heavy rains were forecast to persist through the weekend, affecting the south and west in particular.

The Met Office issued a yellow warning for heavy rain today in southeastern England, including the flood-stricken county of Kent, where the Environment Agency cautioned there’s a medium risk today and tomorrow of disruption due to new flooding from the River Medway.

“We’re seeing a series of weather fronts bringing rain and wind from the Atlantic,” Nicola Maxey, a spokeswoman for the Met Office, said in a telephone interview. “The rain is falling on already wet ground and the fronts are coming through so quickly that the ground isn’t having time to dry out.”

Rains forecast for today and tomorrow add to the winter misery for Britons. Floods have affected more than 1,550 properties across England and Wales since a storm that struck on December 23, according to the Environment Agency. That cut power to more than half a million homes at its peak, and left thousands without electricity or heating on Christmas Day.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson yesterday led a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee in London as homes were flooded from Polperro in the southwest to Yalding in the southeast. The winds, rains and floods disrupted rail services by operators including Arriva Trains and CrossCountry, while London’s Gatwick Airport said it protected substations and switch rooms with sandbags to minimise disruption.

Flood warnings

As of 5.40pm yesterday, the Environment Agency listed nine severe flood warnings, including three each in the Midlands, Wales and southwest England. There were 111 flood warnings and 214 flood alerts. There were 21 flood warnings in Scotland, according to The Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

There’s a medium risk of more flooding today in Kent and Gloucestershire, according to the Environment Agency’s three-day flood risk forecast. London, the entire south and west coasts of England and Wales, and much of the east coast are listed as having a low flood risk. Tomorrow, only Kent has a medium risk, while the south and west coasts have a low threat.

In the past week, the River Severn, the country’s longest, breached flood defenses in Gloucestershire, and authorities closed the Thames Barrier during high tide to protect London from a coastal surge.

Looe, Polperro and Mevagissey in Cornwall and Dartmouth and Lynmouth in Devon, all in southwest England, were flooded by a combination of a storm surge and high tides, and 130 properties have been flooded since January 2, the Environment Agency said yesterday. It warned that flooding along the River Stour in southern England is possible within the next 48 hours.

Northern snow

“The risk of flooding could continue throughout the weekend,” John Curtin, head of incident management at the Environment Agency, said in an e-mailed statement. “With several severe flood warnings still in place, we would urge people to be prepared by checking their flood risk.”

As well as the rain threat to London and the southeast, where as much as an 3 centimetres may fall, mainly in a 6-hour period, the Met Office issued a yellow warning for snow today in Northern Ireland, northern England and southern Scotland. For tomorrow, there’s a yellow warning for rain in Northern Ireland and southern England. ― Bloomberg