Storm Christoph in North West England: Flooding and evacuations

Summary

Latest updates as Storm Christoph brings disruption to the North West on Thursday 21 January
Cheshire takes brunt of flooding
Severe flood warnings in place on River Bollin near Lymm and River Dee near Chester
Dozens of pensioners at a Northwich retirement village are stranded by flooding
Thousands of homes narrowly escaped serious flooding in Manchester
Rail services disrupted across Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire

Live Reporting

Flood risk downgraded in Maghullpublished at 08:40 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
The severe flood warning at Dovers Bridge in Maghull has been reduced to a flood warning, the Environment Agency has said.
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Firefighters evacuate homes from village near Chesterpublished at 08:37 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
Firefighters had to help people leave their homes in the village of Tattenhall, south east of Chester, just before midnight last night.
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'Danger to life' warning in place in Cheshire and Greater Manchesterpublished at 08:34 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
The Environment Agency currently has four severe flood warnings in place across the North West.
The warning is the highest level set by the agency and means there is severe flooding and a danger to life int he surrounding area.
The warnings are in place as follows:
- River Bollin and Agden Brook at Little Bollington, external in Cheshire
- River Bollin at Heatley, external in Cheshire
- River Mersey at East Didsbury, external in Greater Manchester
- River Mersey at West Didsbury and Northenden, external in Greater Manchester
Merseyrail replacement buses disrupted by floodingpublished at 08:25 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
Flooding is affecting the rail replacement buses on part of the Merseyrail network.
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Severe flood warning for Heatley and Little Bollingtonpublished at 08:20 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
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Leisure centre refuge for evacueespublished at 08:06 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
Anna Jameson
BBC Manchester
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Snow and rain 'was apocalyptic'published at 07:59 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
A councillor has said that when people were asked to leave their homes as flood waters rose last night in Didsbury, not everybody near the flooding zone was prepared to go.
Image source, PA
Richard Kilpatrick, the Liberal Democrat representative for West Didsbury said people were "half expecting it, but didn’t want to believe it".
"With the snow, it was almost apocalyptic," he said.
"It was literally a matter of knocking on doors [to persuade people].
"A lot of people are used to the flood defences doing their job."
Image source, PA Media
Police in Cheshire issue 'hazardous driving conditions' warningpublished at 07:48 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
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Rail passengers advised not to travelpublished at 07:41 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
Rail operator Northern has advised passengers not to travel on many of its routes in the North West "due to increasingly poor conditions following torrential rain across the region".
The firm said routes covering "north of Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria" were affected and a number had "experienced issues with flooding and... seen closures and significant disruption".
A spokesman said Northern had worked "alongside Network Rail throughout the night to prepare as many rail services as possible to resume on Thursday, [but] despite this hard work, flooding is persisting, and it has become increasingly difficult to operate a reliable service".
Regional director Chris Jackson added:
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We have worked for the last few days, in conjunction with colleagues from across the industry, to keep our services operating and, where possible, supported those services with replacement buses when the flooding meant running trains was impossible.
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Unfortunately, we have had to make the difficult to advise our customers that they should not travel before 12:00 on Thursday across many of our North West routes.
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The situation is constantly changing so I urge anyone who needs to make essential journeys over the next few days to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off.
Storm Christoph: Thousands of homes evacuatedpublished at 07:34 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
BBC News UK
People have been evacuated from their homes overnight amid widespread flooding across England and Wales caused by Storm Christoph.
About 2,000 homes in the Didsbury and Northenden areas of Manchester and in Maghull on Merseyside, are affected.
There are more than 200 flood warnings in place - five of them severe - and weather alerts for rain and snow.
People have been told Covid rules allow them leave their homes in an emergency.
Good morningpublished at 07:31 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January 2021
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Storm Christoph and the disruption it is bringing to North West England.
If you have a story about what is happening, some pictures of what it looks like in your area or want to comment on what has already been said, please do get in touch through Facebook, external, Twitter, external or by emailing northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.