27/12/2013 South Today

more throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We're back with

A Good evening. The latest news in the south. Work to reconnect

electricity to thousands of homes across the region has been

continuing. The power companies say everyone should have their lights

back on by the end of the day. Meanwhile, many families and

businesses are focusing flood damage and rail engineers are working to

reopen lines hit by landslips. The sound of chainsaws has signalled

a return to normality of fallen trees are cleared and power lines

are repaired. But for many it has been a long, long wait. Amongst

those who had a cold and dark Christmas were friends Joan and Roy,

who live in Bishopstoke and Hampshire. At night time in the

middle of the night you wake up, you are shivering and cold and it is

only the fact they brought your water bottle. Along with power cuts

flooding continues to be a severe problem in some areas. Today, the

Lands End Equestrian Centre between Twyford and Charcoal in Berkshire

was still only accessible by boat or by wading. My wife looked out of the

window at 4am in the morning and within an hour it had flooded the

whole yard completely and it was about one foot deep and got higher

and higher. I have never seen it come up so quick in my life. The

horses were OK but some chickens perished in the flood and the car

workshop on the site suffered damage. Water levels peaked on

Christmas Day in many places. Here on the Bournemouth Christchurch

border two mobile home parks were evacuated but over the past 24 hours

river levels have fallen. If I had been standing here on the edge of

the river Stour at Iford on Christmas Day the water would

virtually have been over my head, but now it has come down by a couple

of metres. The Environment Agency says if there is more heavy rain

river levels will rise quickly. The flood plains are completely

saturated. There is water lying absolutely everywhere. Any rainfall

we get over the next couple of days, even further on Bond that,

we'll bring live `` will bring river levels quickly back`up. The heavy

rain has caused landslips on three railway lines in the region

including here at Haslemere on the line from Portsmouth to London.

A second reward has been offered for information about the driver of the

car involved in a fatal hit and run incident in poll `` in Poole.

Christopher Colegate died earlier this month. He was on his way to the

Oakdale Conservative Club which has joined Crimestoppers in offering

?1000 for information leading to an arrest.

Sport, Southampton's 3`0 win at Cardiff yesterday means they are

ninth going into Sunday's trip to Everton. Bournemouth on Portsmouth

were among the winners in the Football League's Boxing Day

schedule. Festive cheer at Dean Court has

Bournemouth picked up their first win at home in the Championship

since early October. Matt Ritchie scored two second`half goals as

Bournemouth thumped Yeovil three ` zero. I can't keep producing moments

like that and not take them and thankfully with Matt Ritchie in the

form he is in today at the moment it is going really well for him and us.

First half power failure threatened Reading's game at Leicester before

an emergency generator was bought in and Nigel Aji Kings' men went down

one ` zero. Oxford United missed the chance to go back to the top of

League Two. They went down 3`2 at home to Plymouth. But it was a win

for Portsmouth that Fratton Park, Romain Padovani's first goal in a

wish football saw Pompey and a nine match winless run with a victory

over Dagenham Redbridge. Some soggy pitches. Sarah has the

weather. We have one or two showers this

evening. They will fade away. Most of us have a dry, chilly night and

patchy frost. Any showers fade away by the middle of the night and with

clear skies overhead light breeze, we are looking at temperatures in

towns and cities dipping down to two or three Celsius. Patchy frost is

possible but also the risk of ice from untreated surfaces. We start

tomorrow on a bright, crisp note. Some good sunshine for much of the

day. Along the coast and for the Isle of Wight we could see some

rather heavy showers through the course of the day and there is a

chance they could lift inland as well. But in the most part some good

sunny spells and temperatures seven or eight Celsius. Tomorrow night

those showers tend to ease away into the channel, drier conditions

follow. Broken cloud overhead and the misty conditions. Temperatures

close to freezing. For Sunday, by day a pretty fine picture. We have

tried, settled conditions. The winds start to pick up as the isobars

squeeze. This weather system arriving from the Atlantic brings

more wet, windy weather into the overnight periods. That is Sunday

and Monday night. Your summary for the coming days. Tomorrow, not doing

too badly. Along the coast while two showers. Elsewhere some good bright,

sunny skies. A fine, dry day for Sunday with wet weather overnight

into Monday to stop unsettled to start the new week. News continues

on the BBC News Channel and on the BBC website and we will be back with

another update at 10:15pm. Enjoy your evening and we will see you

later. Good evening. What a week it has

been, a stormy start, a law through Christmas, then a wild end to the

week, had to keep up, isn't it? This was a vicious area of low pressure

last night, but today the winds have been strongest across northern

areas, where it is still blowing a gale. That will gradually subside as

we go through the night, although a windy night across Scotland with