The return of the floods: The River Severn turns Tewkesbury Abbey into a virtual island after days of heavy rain in an unwelcome reminder of the devastating floods of 2007
Despite the drought and the hosepipe ban, much of England and Wales was braced for flooding today as further heavy rain continued to wreak havoc across the country.
And, as if Britons needed confirmation of just how wet it has been, newly-released figures show the month so far has seen 'well above' average rainfall across the UK, with 97mm recorded - 140 per cent of the long-term monthly average.
Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, which was devastated by flooding in July 2007, was on alert with the Environment Agency setting up an incident room there along with two others in the Midlands and another in the Wessex area.
Stretches of the Severn were at risk of bursting their banks following weather which will be an unwelcome reminder of Tewkesbury's flash floods in 2007, which claimed the lives of three people and left 350,000 people in the county without a supply of clean drinking water.
