:00:08. > :00:13.ferocious storms and tens of thousands without still without
:00:14. > :00:16.power. As Britain counts the cost of the latest onslaught of extreme
:00:17. > :00:22.weather, the Prime Minister warns flood levels are likely to rise
:00:23. > :00:27.again. What we do in the next 24-hours is vital because trajly the
:00:28. > :00:29.river levels will rise again. Every sandbag delivered, every house
:00:30. > :00:34.helped, every flood barrier put in place can make a big difference. In
:00:35. > :00:40.Hertfordshire, houses are evacuated after a huge sinkhole opens up.
:00:41. > :00:46.Peace talks on Syria break down in are moany after less than half an
:00:47. > :00:48.hour. And, Great Britain's Lizzie Yarnold collects her Gold medal in
:00:49. > :01:08.Sochi. Hello, very good evening to you, the
:01:09. > :01:13.Prime Minister says the flooding crisis is set to get worse with
:01:14. > :01:18.groundwater levels likely to rise in many places over the next few days.
:01:19. > :01:22.There are still 16 severe flood warnings, meaning a potential threat
:01:23. > :01:26.to life, and tens of thousands of homes are still without power. Two
:01:27. > :01:30.people died in last night's ferocious storms and more than 30
:01:31. > :01:34.people had to be rescued by the army from a seafront restaurant in
:01:35. > :01:41.Hampshire. Our correspondent, Chris Buckler, reports. At the edge of the
:01:42. > :01:44.ocean lies evidence of its power. This seafront littered with the
:01:45. > :01:49.debris and destruction of a fierce storm. Cars were no match for
:01:50. > :01:54.crashing waves, and this sea view put diners in the path of danger.
:01:55. > :01:58.Today, rocks and shingle had to be cleared from the front of the marine
:01:59. > :02:03.restaurant. They were thrown up by the sea, shattering windows, during
:02:04. > :02:08.what was supposed to be a romantic meal on Valentine's night. The pebls
:02:09. > :02:12.hitting the windows were just like bullets. Smashing the windows,
:02:13. > :02:15.smashing double glazing. Big boulders being hurled. That is when
:02:16. > :02:21.the fear factor came into people. The army helped the emergency
:02:22. > :02:25.services, rescue more than 30 people who found themselves trapped in the
:02:26. > :02:28.restaurant as it started to flood. We wouldn't have opened if we
:02:29. > :02:33.thought it was going to be anywhere as near as bad as it was. This is
:02:34. > :02:37.totally Steps exceptional. No-one was seriously injured here, the
:02:38. > :02:40.harsh extremes of this winter's weather have again claimed lives.
:02:41. > :02:46.Out at sea an 85-year-old man was killed when a freak-wave hit a
:02:47. > :02:53.cruise ship. In London, a taxi driver died when masonry fell from a
:02:54. > :02:58.building, crushing her car. Julie Sillito was 49 and had three
:02:59. > :03:02.grown-up sons. Weather warnings are still in place and homes remain
:03:03. > :03:06.flooded along the Thames. A calm has followed this latest storm, but the
:03:07. > :03:11.Prime Minister knows that there are many families asking, when will all
:03:12. > :03:15.of this finally go away? Tragically, these weather events have been
:03:16. > :03:19.hitting community after community and doing that week after week. It
:03:20. > :03:24.has been very, very tough for people. My heart goes out to anyone
:03:25. > :03:28.who has been flooded. It's not just those flooded. Teams work to
:03:29. > :03:34.reconnect power to tens of thousands of family's homes today. The
:03:35. > :03:38.conditions were dangerous at times. Along the south coast, police were
:03:39. > :03:44.trying to keep people away from the waves and danger. Surrounded by all
:03:45. > :03:48.of this debris you don't need too much imagination to realise the
:03:49. > :03:55.force of the waves last night. You can see just the big lumps here.
:03:56. > :03:59.Milford-on-Sea concrete beach huts, used so often in summer, haven't
:04:00. > :04:03.survived the winter. I've got a bit of a beach hut. I went to a lot of
:04:04. > :04:08.trouble to put a new lock on the door. I smeared it with marine
:04:09. > :04:12.grease, I'm sure it still works, if I can ever find the door and wall
:04:13. > :04:16.it's attached to! The possessions people once kept in those huts lie
:04:17. > :04:23.scattered by the sea this evening. More lives affected by this wave
:04:24. > :04:27.after wave of fierce weather. Chris Buckler, BBC News, Milford-on-Sea.
:04:28. > :04:31.As we've heard, despite the improving weather, flood levels
:04:32. > :04:37.could peak again tomorrow. Our correspondent, Katy Watson is in
:04:38. > :04:41.Staines-upon-Thames, where there is currently a severe flood warning in
:04:42. > :04:45.place. Katy, are residents there prepared for more flooding? I spent
:04:46. > :04:48.most of the days here in Staines at a school where there has been a
:04:49. > :04:53.production line of people building sandbags, putting them on to lorries
:04:54. > :04:57.and taking them to areas that need the sandbags still. Some people are
:04:58. > :04:59.disgruntled about what has been happening and whether the
:05:00. > :05:02.authorities have done or haven't done enough. There has been a sense
:05:03. > :05:05.that actually the authorities have got their hands full. The
:05:06. > :05:09.Environment Agency have their hands full. The way to get back to normal
:05:10. > :05:13.really is for the community to get going. There have been charities
:05:14. > :05:17.helping with the sand. The army on hand as well, trying to deliver
:05:18. > :05:22.those sandbags, but the problem is that that pragmatism has to stay.
:05:23. > :05:26.That postivity has to remain. People here are fed up and tired. People
:05:27. > :05:31.here want to get back to normal. That is the concern the weather,
:05:32. > :05:41.hopefully there will be light relief there won't be any more rain. . .
:05:42. > :05:46.Many thanks. Residents of a street in Hemel Hempstead were forced to
:05:47. > :05:49.leave their homes after an enormous sinkhole opened up. They were
:05:50. > :05:54.evacuated by police early this morning as soon as the 35 foot wide
:05:55. > :06:00.hole was discovered. Jeremy Cooke reports. On the corner of a road, on
:06:01. > :06:05.a suburban estate early morning drama. The ground collapsed. A
:06:06. > :06:10.sinkhole, 35 feet wide, 20 feet deep, undermining the house and the
:06:11. > :06:16.road. The fear is that more will go, so the residents are evacuated in a
:06:17. > :06:21.hurry. I just heard police knocking on the door at 7.30 am to say, "you
:06:22. > :06:25.need to see rack wait, there is a sinkhole outside." I didn't get time
:06:26. > :06:29.to grab anything, not even my purse or clothes. We had to get out. Local
:06:30. > :06:34.residents tells us they are in no doubt that all of the torrential
:06:35. > :06:39.rain of recent weeks has a lot to do with this. A reminder that all this
:06:40. > :06:43.water causes problems on our coasts, with our rivers and underground as
:06:44. > :06:47.well. It's not the first sinkhole to appear in recent times. This is High
:06:48. > :06:53.well. It's not the first sinkhole to Wycombe, two weeks ago. The M2 in
:06:54. > :06:56.Kent, just a few days back. Sinkholes have not been caused by
:06:57. > :07:03.the weather, they've been triggered by the weather. The cause is the
:07:04. > :07:06.existence of a a cavity at depth, be it artificial or natural. The
:07:07. > :07:11.trigger is actually that water passing through the ground. At the
:07:12. > :07:16.moment, this increased number is largely a result of the increase in
:07:17. > :07:22.rainfall. The weather may be improving, but in London and beyond
:07:23. > :07:27.the issues remain. Croydon's underwater treatment plant is
:07:28. > :07:32.threatened with flooding, a major pumping operation continuing, 24/7
:07:33. > :07:38.to stop contamination. In many places, the impact of the floods is
:07:39. > :07:42.plain to see, water everywhere. It's becoming increasingly clear that
:07:43. > :07:48.underground boreholes are full to capacity. Groundwater, at record
:07:49. > :07:54.high levels. Bringing landslides and sinkholes. Jeremy Cooke, BBC News,
:07:55. > :07:59.Hemel Hempstead. The Foreign Secretary says the collapse of the
:08:00. > :08:02.latest round of Syrian peace talks is a "serious setback". William
:08:03. > :08:05.Hague blamed the break down on President Assad's regime. The UN
:08:06. > :08:10.envoy, who has been mediating between the two sides, apologised to
:08:11. > :08:12.the Syrian people for the lack of extraordinary press. Our
:08:13. > :08:17.correspondent, Lyse Doucet, has this report from the Syrian city of Homs.
:08:18. > :08:22.It's been a week where there was some rare good news. Food and
:08:23. > :08:27.medicine finally went in to the besieged old quarter of Homs. More
:08:28. > :08:32.than 1,000 people were brought out, during a temporary truce between
:08:33. > :08:37.rebel fighters and the government. Resolving Syria's deep humanitarian
:08:38. > :08:42.crisis needs a political solution. That helped push the warring parties
:08:43. > :08:47.to attend peace talks in Geneva. The second round ended today in complete
:08:48. > :08:53.failure. They couldn't agree on an agenda, nor even a date for the next
:08:54. > :08:57.meeting. The disheartened UN envoy ended the session with a direct
:08:58. > :09:07.message to the Syrian people. I'm very, very sorry and I apologise to
:09:08. > :09:11.the Syrian people that their hopes, which were very, very high that,
:09:12. > :09:16.that something will happen here, I think that, you know, what has...
:09:17. > :09:25.The little that has been achieved in Homs gave them even more hope that
:09:26. > :09:29.maybe this is the beginning of the coming out of this horrible crisis
:09:30. > :09:35.they are in. The Syrian government held the other side responsible for
:09:36. > :09:39.this failure. At the end, today, the international mediator came to the
:09:40. > :09:43.meeting with a draft agenda. We immediately accepted the draft
:09:44. > :09:48.agenda, while the other side did not. The Foreign Secretary, William
:09:49. > :09:53.Hague, put the blame elsewhere. The failure to agree an agenda for
:09:54. > :09:58.future talks is a serious setback, he said. Responsibility for that
:09:59. > :10:03.lies squarely with the Assad regime. For millions of Syrians, forced to
:10:04. > :10:07.flee their homes into neighbouring countries, the Geneva talks never
:10:08. > :10:13.held out much hope of ending their suffering. Many of these refugees in
:10:14. > :10:20.Jordan saw them as irrelevant. TRANSLATION: We can only rely on God
:10:21. > :10:22.and ourselves. Geneva II is a farce. None of them have a conscience.
:10:23. > :10:28.No-one cares about the Syrian people. No-one had high expectations
:10:29. > :10:31.of these peace talks, even as they went on, thousands of people were
:10:32. > :10:35.killed here in Syria. For western governments it was the only strategy
:10:36. > :10:39.they had to try to end a brutal conflict around the negotiating
:10:40. > :10:44.table. There is no military solution, as you can hear, inside
:10:45. > :10:50.either. The only certainty is that this war looks set to continue. Many
:10:51. > :10:56.fear it will only get worse. Lyse Doucet, BBC News, Homs. Now then
:10:57. > :11:06.time for all the sports news, here's Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes at the BBC
:11:07. > :11:10.Sport Centre. Hi, Lizzie. Thanks very much, Ben. Good evening. Well,
:11:11. > :11:14.it's been another action-packed, but mixed day for Great Britain at the
:11:15. > :11:17.Winter Olympics with more cheers for Golden girl Lizzy Yarnold as she
:11:18. > :11:20.collected her skeleton medal, but more heartache for Elise Christie in
:11:21. > :11:22.the speed skating. Andy Swiss reports from Sochi. Disqualified on
:11:23. > :11:24.Thursday, surely it couldn't happen again? Elise Christie's dreams of
:11:25. > :11:31.redemption turned to another nightmare. She seemed to be safely
:11:32. > :11:34.through her 1500m heat, the referee spotted she had skated just inside
:11:35. > :11:38.the black finish line, and not over it, technically, she hadn't
:11:39. > :11:44.completed the race and was therefore out. It was all also a day for
:11:45. > :11:47.British delight. After yesterday's victory in the skeleton, Lizzie
:11:48. > :11:51.Yarnold was getting used to life as an Olympic Champion, something she
:11:52. > :11:56.told me she owes to her friends and family. Seeing the tears and the
:11:57. > :11:59.pride in their eyes reminded me of how much we've all been through
:12:00. > :12:04.together. There's been a lot of hard times and a lot of good times. And,
:12:05. > :12:07.it's been a long five years competing in in the skeleton, being
:12:08. > :12:14.part of that time, but I couldn't have done it without them. This
:12:15. > :12:19.evening, Yarnold, watched by her mum and dad, received her Gold medal.
:12:20. > :12:27.The smiles mingled with tears. So composed in competition, finally the
:12:28. > :12:32.emotions overflowed. For the British fans then a first golden moment here
:12:33. > :12:36.in Sochi. At the half way point of these Games, there will be
:12:37. > :12:42.confidence of more medals to come. Andy Swiss, BBC News, Sochi. A
:12:43. > :12:45.French athlete has broken the 21-year-old world record for the
:12:46. > :12:48.pole vault. Renaud Lavillenie leared the bar at 6.16 metres in a
:12:49. > :12:51.competition in Ukraine today. That's a centimetre higher than the
:12:52. > :13:02.previous record set by Sergey Bubka in 1993. There were three matches in
:13:03. > :13:10.the FA Cup fifth round today. Wigan are through to the quarter-finals
:13:11. > :13:12.after beating Cardiff 2-1. Elsewhere, Sunderland were 1-0
:13:13. > :13:15.winners over Southampton and Manchester City won the battle of
:13:16. > :13:18.the big guns, beating Chelsea 2-0. Patrick Geary reports. Jose Mourinho
:13:19. > :13:20.has a way of commanding attention. This week he used one of his
:13:21. > :13:23.significant moves, impress conferences he has been playing mind
:13:24. > :13:28.games with his rivals, only Manchester City weren't playing
:13:29. > :13:34.ball. Rather they were, right around the defence. Mourinho tactically out
:13:35. > :13:37.manoeuvred City's manager in the League, here they were allowed to
:13:38. > :13:42.play to their strengths. No-one can match them in attack. Nasri made it
:13:43. > :13:45.two, Manchester City are through. Joining them in the quarter-finals
:13:46. > :13:50.are Wigan, the team that beat them in last year's final. The man who
:13:51. > :13:54.scored the goal then got an even better one this time to see off
:13:55. > :13:58.Premier League Cardiff. Watson was again the hero for the now
:13:59. > :14:02.Championship club. There was a sleepy feeling at the early tie in
:14:03. > :14:08.Sunderland, Craig Gardiner gave the Stadium of Light a spectacular alarm
:14:09. > :14:13.call. Southampton woke up and did enough to create an equaliser. It's
:14:14. > :14:21.just somehow Rickie Lambert didn't score it. With that went
:14:22. > :14:27.Southampton's lost hope of escape and Sunderland's Cup form continues.
:14:28. > :14:29.There were victories in the Scottish Premiership for Dundee United,
:14:30. > :14:32.Hibernian and Motherwell, while Inverness drew with Hearts. In
:14:33. > :14:44.Paisley, Adam Rooney's penalty was the only goal in second-placed
:14:45. > :14:47.Aberdeen's 1-0 win at St Mirren. Some of the biggest names in
:14:48. > :14:51.football have being paying tribute today to Sir Tom Finney, who died
:14:52. > :14:54.last night aged 91. Famous, not only for his goals, but also for his
:14:55. > :14:58.loyalty to his club, Preston North End. From Deepdale, Stuart Flinders
:14:59. > :15:01.looks back on the career of one of the greatest England players of all
:15:02. > :15:04.time. In death, as he had been in life, Sir Tom Finney was applauded
:15:05. > :15:10.enthusiastically here today. Preston North End supporters celebrated his
:15:11. > :15:16.life before his team's match against Leyton Orient this afternoon. Those
:15:17. > :15:22.who played on the same pitch as him recall it as a privilege. I always
:15:23. > :15:27.looked at him being a national sporting icon. You know, I would
:15:28. > :15:30.rank him as probably one of the greatest sports men which we
:15:31. > :15:35.produced really in these islands. Sir Tom made more than 400
:15:36. > :15:40.appearances for Preston between 1946 and 1960, he is one of England's
:15:41. > :15:44.all-time highest goal scorers. He remained at Deepdale throughout his
:15:45. > :15:49.career. The club refusing a move to Italy at a time when his wages were
:15:50. > :15:54.?14 a week. I think the greatest personal satisfaction I got was
:15:55. > :15:58.being fortunate enough to be born I think with the skill which enabled
:15:59. > :16:03.me to play a game I love play and would willingly have play for
:16:04. > :16:07.nothing. He could become a professional football his father
:16:08. > :16:12.insisted he finish his apprenticeship as a plumber, a trade
:16:13. > :16:16.he returned to. Many of these supporters are too young to have
:16:17. > :16:24.seen him place. His remained the most famous face in Preston long
:16:25. > :16:28.after he retired. His modesty is as legendary as his talent. Sir Tom
:16:29. > :16:31.Finney who died last night. That's the sport. Back to you Ben. Very
:16:32. > :16:36.much. That is it from us tonight. Can you see more of all of today's
:16:37. > :16:41.stories on the BBC News Channel. Good night.
:16:42. > :16:53.Good evening, whilst I can't promise you a turn around in the weather in
:16:54. > :16:56.the week ahead, I can bring some light at the end of the tunnel
:16:57. > :17:02.perhaps in terms of things becoming just a little quieter. Overnight
:17:03. > :17:03.tonight certainly a big change from last night, the wind, which