Britain grapples through worst torrential rainfall in 248 years/Quarter of Slovenian homes in the dark after ice, blizzards cut power

https://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/britain-grapples-through-worst-torrential-rainfall-in-248-years/

Britain announced emergency funding Thursday to cope with devastating floods after what officials said had been likely the worst spell of winter rainfall in at least 248 years. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has faced criticism for its handling of a crisis that has left swathes of the country under water, with a key railway line washed away. Several people had to be rescued from deluged homes on Thursday while more storms are expected this weekend. Across the English Channel, France’s western tip was placed on alert for flooding as high tides wreaked havoc along Europe’s Atlantic coast. Pickles said the winter was the “wettest since George III was on the throne,” referring to Britain’s monarch from 1760-1820. He added that flood victims have “literally been through hell and high water.” Britain’s Meterological Office released figures confirming Pickles’ assessment. For southern England, “regional statistics suggest that this is one of, if not the most, exceptional periods of winter rainfall in at least 248 years,” it said in a statement. Parts of the region received five months of rainfall between December 12 and January 31. The rainy winter has set records tumbling, being the wettest combined period of December and January across the United Kingdom since 1910, the Met Office said. It was also the windiest December since 1969, based on the occurrence of winds over 69 mph. For England alone it was the wettest December to January since 1876-1877 and the second wettest since rainfall records began in 1766.

 

https://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/quarter-of-slovenian-homes-in-the-dark-after-ice-blizzards-cut-power/ 

 

A quarter of households in Slovenia were left without electricity on Monday after a weekend of blizzards and very low temperatures wreaked havoc on power lines and roads, the national STA news agency reported. Leading daily newspaper Delo described it as the worst devastation in living memory. More than 40 percent of schools were closed and only about a third of those were due to reopen on Tuesday, STA said. It said the power cuts had affected more than 250,000 people, or one in four families, in the country. This prompted the government to ask for help from the European Union’s civil defense team in the form of power generators for the affected areas, the government said on its website. STA said generators were being urgently dispatched from Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Farming Minister Dejan Zidan said ice and snow had damaged 500,000 hectares of forest, or roughly a half of Slovenia’s total forest area. –Reuters