12/02/2014 Midlands Today

end of the week? No. Had Russia heading our way and wet and windy

again. That is Hello and welcome to Midlands Today.

The headlines tonight: Fifty residents rescued from sheltered

accommodation in Worcester as the flood waters continue to rise.

Yesterday I could get to work through the laundrette, and we were

all right. But this morning when we tried to go to work there was no way

to get out. Families and businesses across the

region are feeling the force of the floods this evening.

In Herefordshire, families have been trapped as the River Wye continues

to rise. In Shropshire, flood barriers may be doing their job, but

businesses are still feeling the impact.

Of the ten museums we have had to close two.

While farmers across the region have stepped in with animal feed to help

farms submerged in floods on the Somerset Levels.

And this is what we so desperately need and what I'm sure we're all

dying to see. Believe it or not, it is still possible this week. But

will it make any difference against the backlash of rain? Find out later

how much more we can expect. Good evening. The River Severn

reached its highest recorded level in Worcester today matching the peak

in the floods of 2007. At Barbourne in the city, it hit 5.65 metres and

there are fears it could rise further. The Wye's also giving

concern. In Ross on Wye, the river's reached 4.32 metres ` still below

2007 levels but expected to rise. Across the region, there are 42

flood warnings tonight and 40 flood alerts. We've four reports tonight `

from Herefordshire and from our reporters along the Severn, in

Goucestershire, in Shropshire and first from Ben Sidwell in Worcester.

Being led to safety. The residents of these sheltered housing flats in

Worcester usually have a beautiful view of the River Severn. Today that

view was too close for comfort. Around the 43 flats 2`3 feet of

water. It is a worry. You are living next to the River Severn. We can't

get flood insurance. I have no insurance. But I have put everything

up off the floor. Specialist Water Rescue Teams from

Hereford Worcester Fire Service called in to help evacuate the 50 or

so residents. Yesterday I could get out to work through the laundrette.

But this morning when we tried to go to work there was no way we could

get out. The situation is untenable. We are moving around the corner.

Behind me there are sandbags around the wooden structure, that is a

small electricity substation. If that goes, part of the city will its

power. From the air the extent of the flooding was even more clear.

Roads, paths and fields all now just an extension of the River Severn.

And for commuters travelling around Worcester became a battle in itself.

This is the only way to get from one side of Worcester to the other. The

main bridges closed, this road is over a foot underwater. The only way

people can get from one side to the other is now by shuttle bus.

It is absolutely crazy. I've never seen anything like this. The queues

this morning were horrendous. We have got them all across. Good job.

Some did just manage to get through using another form of transport, but

with the waters still rising those crossing the bridge had fears they

may not make it back. I am worried. I have come from

Stratford`upon`Avon. I hope I can get home tonight. We will get back.

It doesn't worry us. We can stay for coffee. At least these residents

will be able to stay somewhere safe and dry now, but they're unlikely to

be the last people rescued from rising waters in Worcester this

week. Well, Ben is in the centre of Worcester now, a city of 100,000 cut

in two when the main bridge over the Severn was shut. Ben, what's the

latest? Well, the bridge remains closed. It will do for some time.

Other problems in Worcester, West tellers there are 4000 homes without

power, 10,000 homes across the West Midlands with no electricity at all.

Dave Hudson is from the Environment Agency. We are 50 metres from where

the bank should be. The worst floods we have seen. Yes, the river levels

are high. An important difference from this and 2007 is the

high`intensity rain. Tens of thousands of properties were

flooded. We are talking about 1400 properties, we have protected 10,000

or more. It is a lot, I got the numbers wrong. What about the

barriers? People are saying will it hold because there is more rain

tonight. We are confident the barriers will be OK. I was up at one

of them is morning. There was a good way to go yet. We have seen nothing

forecast that will imply anything getting to that seriousness. The

weather here is dry at the moment, very windy but it looks like there

may be some rain later. This water is still rising in the city.

Getting about is a major problem in flooded areas and roads can rapidly

become impassable, leaving families cut`off. Sarah Falkland reports on

coping with the floods in Herefordshire.

It isn't often people are quite so delighted to see a film crew but

Dave has not had any visitors for a week. Bad drainage means the roads

to his home has become a river. Horrendous. At the moment it has

reduced six inches in depth. This is the end of the lane where it is the

shallowest. At the bottom it is two feet plus. While Dave can hop over

the fields, his mother`in`law can not. She needed a first responder

team to get her to hospital. I am fed up with it. This year is worse

than last year. We went down in the 4`wheel drive and it was really

really frightening. And it must have been for anyone near the river. The

roads were all but impassable and nearby drivers had to content with

flash flooding. You have to be very very careful. I am taking it easy.

Are you OK in the floodwater? I am not hanging around. The flood water

caused problems on the main road as well. And at the farm they were

repairing the worst. The farmer is expecting cattle to be flooded out

by the morning. So much for the country but inner`city it is pretty

much business as usual. The River Wye is behaving itself, not too

menacing, only one flood warning in place but that is further

downstream. Further along the River Wye, at least one inhabitant is

oblivious of the drama. Divina the seal spotted near Monmouth. Well,

Shefali is in the newsroom. More rain to come. And lots of reports of

storm damage tonight. Virgin Trains suspending most services we've been

told. And at least 30 roads blocked in Shropshire alone? It is grim.

Yesterday we mentioned amber warnings, strong gusts of 60 miles

an hour and as you will see later, it has been confirmed by the figures

and wind speed. We haven't managed to record any huge amounts of rain

but the potential was there for an inch of rain. So expect the same

later this week. More low pressure is moving up. Gloucestershire

suffered some of the worst flooding in 2007. The worry now is that the

latest heavy rain could see some homes flooded for the first time

since then, as Steve Knibbs has been finding out.

This was a riverside caravan park ` now part of the river. The

electrical hook ups poke out of the water in the distance. With the

Severn expected to rise, the owners are once again on edge. Just packing

an overnight bag in case we have to move out. The moment we think we are

safe, not 100% certain, you have to take each day and each hour as it

comes. This is an area used to battening down the hatches. In

Longford, people are ready well in advance. People know the score, they

all have televisions. They experienced 2007.

And the sandbags keep on coming ` well over 1500 have been delivered

this week in Tewkesbury Borough alone. It is important the sandbags

are going to the right people in the right way. We deliver sandbags to

vulnerable people. But not all of them seem to be

staying put. There were two tonnes of sandbags and there was a time

taken away. The emergency services are ready

too. Today fire crews trained to launch one of their boats in the

choppy swollen river at Gloucester with serious discussions taking

place to make sure the county is ready. The local resilience Forum is

meeting, they are looking at contingency measures to be put in

place. It is an opportunity to reassure people we are doing

everything we can to make sure they stay safe. This van driver was

rescued after thinking he could make it along a flooded road. The risk

took up valuable time from the Welsh fire crews sent in to save him.

Rising river levels are posing a real threat to life and property

tonight, but so far flood barriers are doing their job. There has been

an impact, though, on businesses and tourist attractions, as Joanne

Writtle's been finding out along the River Severn in Shropshire.

Ironbridge in Shropshire ` flood barriers holding back water. But not

everywhere's escaped. A short distance away museums have been hit.

Of the ten museums through the site, we have closed two. At the antiques

and craft centre volunteers and business owners have moved stock

from the ground. This is the one thing that is put into people, to

help one another in dire need like this.

The water has seeped in once this week. They fear it'll return soon.

We are quite worried because we have 75 traders in here which is a lots

of stock and we have been moving the stock to try to protect it because

it is their businesses as well as ours.

Hit hasn't stopped raining ours and we headed further downstream where

the water is causing yet more problems. The town's golf course has

been closed for days. A few holes beside the river were initially

closed, but now swathes of the course have been affected by

constant rain. Gutted. The club is losing money obviously. We are

hoping for some fair`weather to get members back on the course playing

again and we can generate revenue. Pitches at the riverside Bridgnorth

Rugby Club are submerged. And the neighbouring children's play area

out of action. The River Severn is wild right now. And all this water

is heading to Worcestershire. Well, amidst all the concern about

rising river levels here, farmers in Somerset have been coping with

dreadful floods for a month now. Many can't get on their land and

they're struggling to find the money to feed livestock. Our Rural Affairs

Correspondent David Gregory`Kumar reports on how food aid from our

farming community is helping them survive.

Another load of donations arrives at Morton Bagot in Warwickshire. Last

Wednesday, we watched the news in the evening, watching him loading

his cattle up in the water. He was talking about where will his life be

from now on? Will he be a bit carry on farming? He is a large farmer. If

he is struggling, the smaller farmers will be struggling even more

so. So the word went out on social media and internet forums and this

is the response, tonnes of food and bedding but this is half the battle,

next you have to get it to the Somerset floodzone. Few down to

Somerset will be ?200 and that is just one cost but it is for a good

cause and if we can do our bit, we will. This help is welcomed by the

Somerset farmers. It is wonderful however one has chipped in to help

us. This donation will become feed for cattle and in the longer term

farmers will be looking to donate grass seeds so they can help farmers

in Somerset reseed the land when the water levels go down to grow grass

for cattle and sheep. When the puddles dry up on the levels they

are likely to have no grass for months and months. They are going to

be desperate for forage for a long long time. We are in this the long

haul. This help will continue long after the waters have disappeared.

We'll have the latest on the flooding a little later. But, to

keep right up to date with conditions close to you, the best

advice as always is to tune into your bbc local radio station.

The accomplice of a triple murderer has been found guilty of aiding her

sadistic killing spree. Joanna Dennehy killed three men in

Cambridgeshire and Gary Stretch helped get rid of the bodies. They

then drove to Herefordshire where Stretch used to live. In Hereford,

Dennehy stabbed two men at random ` both survived. Giles Latcham has the

background to a shocking case. Strolling hand in hand at motorway

services in Worcestershire, the odd couple ` cold`eyed killer Joanna

Dennehy and her giant sidekick seven foot three Gary Stretch. She with

three murders already to her name ` he her faithful driver and helper

and the orgy of violence was far from over. If the police in Hereford

had not intervened when they did, where this trail of destruction

would have ended is anyone's guess. She is seen with friends buying, ``

tobacco. At random she selected her first victim. It was here the car

driven by Gary Stretch pulled up, Joanna Dennehy let out and launched

a ferocious attack on a local man, a postman, walking his dog. That man

was stabbed twice in the back and shoulder. The man in the shop, Mark

Lloyd, was in the car as the attack took place. He has spoken

exclusively to the BBC. She had a knife in her hand and a smile on her

face. Is it me or is it you? She got in the car, the knife in our hand,

she kissed Gary on the cheek and said, thanks for that. Another

victim was attacked at random, a dog walker stabbed 40 times. She said

something to the effect of luck, you are bleeding, I had better do some

more. I think I said, leave me alone, please. Please leave me

alone. But she carried on. In Cambridgeshire, she had stabbed

three men and Gary Stretch helped dispose of the bodies they headed to

Herefordshire a neighbour remembers them turning up. I saw them once in

a car. It is the only time I saw her. Gary came in for breakfast and

we caught in the gentle giants because he was so polite and I can't

believe this has happened. Over the road, other neighbours remember him

differently. He played loud music late at night into the early hours

and when my dad asked him politely, he would get aggressive and

eventually it ended with him throwing potatoes across our drive

and at the windows. In April they visited a friend and took pictures,

a macabre pose with an ornamental knife and handcuffs on the

waistband. Those pictures were taken in Herefordshire. They visited the

same day they went to Hereford. She with murder in her mind. In a phone

call from prison, Gary Stretch told his ex`wife Joanna Dennehy was off

her head, something that turned him from small`time burglar to willing

accomplice in murder. Friends or lovers, the true nature of their

relationship remains their secret. But together, to a city wholly

unused to it, they brought horror both random and extreme.

Birmingham City Council's to put up its council tax by 2% as it

struggles to save ?822m by 2018. The new city library has a ?1.3m funding

gap and could have its opening hours cut. It's been confirmed 1000 jobs

will also be lost across the council. The council leader says a

survey of Birmingham people showed that they backed the increase.

It puts more money into the budget, someone said a million but it

multiplies up to three point for in subsequent years. It is a way of

avoiding further cuts. A knife surrender started in

Birmingham today in response to a number of killings. But the mother

of a teenage rapper fatally stabbed last year says she's bitterly

disappointed that she and her son's fans aren't playing a bigger part.

Our special correspondent, Peter Wilson reports.

A photo call after months of waiting the secure knife bins were on the

streets. The young the great and the good all in the spotlight. But this

woman was not invited. Alison Cope was due to play a big part in the

anti knife campaign ` her son 18`year`old Joshua Ribera was

stabbed and killed last September. Known as Depzman his music had a

growing fanbase but today his Mum felt left out in the cold. The

amount of people that loved his music and who care he isn't here,

they could reached out to all of those people by using his name with

my permission. But they have chosen not to and it is frustrating.

The New Crime Commissioner wants this initiative to be community led

getting everyone on board will be essential to its success. We hope a

second wave in South Birmingham and we need to publicise those. We are

hopeful to be able to fully involve those in the future.

For a decade knife crime in Birmingham has fallen by 75% but now

its rising again ` the police say the word amnesty is wrong there's

never a reason to carry a knife. All weapons should be surrendered. One

young musician has taken that message into local schools. A child

that feels they need to get rid of something, it is easier for them to

drop it off rather than answering to somebody. These pins alone don't

prevent knife crime, everyone says education is needed to change

attitudes and to achieve that, everyone will have to work together.

Onto football now and West Bromwich Albion's one`all draw with Chelsea

means they're now out of the bottom three. The Premier League leaders

went in front just before half`time at the Hawthorns. But Pepe Mel's men

fought back. And three minutes from the end, Victor Anichebe scored to

earn a valuable point. The perfect tonic before West Brom fly off to

Spain for six days warm`weather training. Aston Villa were denied

victory by the Cardiff City goalkeeper David Marshall. It

finished 0`0. You can see all of the goals on Match Of The Day tonight.

Storm damage causing major cancellations on Virgin Trains and

many roads are blocked. It is looking dreadful. Yes, the north and

west of the region has borne the brunt of the damaging winds and the

wind speed we have seen across the western fringes would seem to bear

that out. They have exceeded 60 mph. Onto the rainfall totals and

those have not been as impressive. The totals began to mount up after

48 hours. A few saw that, Hereford seems to have been the wettest place

in the region without 290 millimetres of rain. We could see

more of that by Friday. When the low pressure system is out of the way,

we have one days grace and then this next system, and Atlantic glow

rattled up. It is coupled with strong winds with wraparound

occlusion. Yellow warnings for the rain coming on Friday, it will

amount to an inch of rain. It is all totting up and river levels are

getting higher. Not great news and more flooding is on the way. For the

time being, we are running the risk of some strong gusts across northern

and western parts, this is one of the windiest spells of the day this

evening and night. After that, they will start to ease but we are

looking at a dry periods towards the end of the night but a few showers

running across the south and they could turn wintry. Lows of around 12

Celsius in towns and cities but lower than that in rural spots.

Tomorrow, a dry day, a few showers around the region and tomorrow will

be a cold day but some sunshine and the respite from the rain until

Friday. Staying with the flooding here and a report now from Sian

Lloyd in Bewdley. She's spent the day in the picturesque

Worcestershire town on the banks of the River Severn where families are

waiting nervously tonight and hoping that the flood barriers will keep

the rising waters at bay. The defences have never been tested to

this extent. The River Severn is continuing to rise with another peak

expected on Friday. Without these defences, Bewdley would be

underwater. The town has suffered severe flooding in the past and the

people who live along the river are taking chances. Flood barriers and

sandbags and it is just a precaution really because I know the river can

come up. We have never had it this high before but we never had the

defences before. This is trying the defences out. Lindsay is feeling the

effects of the weather. She has cancelled bookings for her holiday

cottage but a pump is keeping the worst at bay. It is the water table

levels. There is so much water in the ground it has to go somewhere so

it comes to the floor and it takes the access waterway otherwise I

would be knee deep. People here tell me they have never seen the river so

high. It matches the peak of the record`breaking floods of 2007. This

barrier currently is 1.65 metres high, it is keeping back the River

Severn. But it needs to go higher. Bewdley had its big investment in

flood defences that other communities are now calling for.

Contingency plans are in place, rest centres will be set up should

evacuation be needed. Fingers crossed for everybody there. Live

now to Worcester. How is the city coping? Well, Worcester is a city

used to flooding but even by their standards this is pretty bad. The

town has been split into, many roads including the river bridge are

closed. Those people living around the river whose properties have not

flooded will spend most of the night battling to keep properties dry. And

with these levels still rising, it will be a tough night and a very

long few days for the people of Worcester.

That was the Midlands Today. I'll be back at ten o'clock with the very

latest on the floodwaters. Have a good evening. Bye for now.