Severe storms in Britain have flooded dozens of towns along rivers in central England and the east of Wales and caused grief for thousands of Britons in the area.

The Environment Agency has issued numerous severe flood warnings in counties along the rivers Thames, Avon, Severn, Ock,and Great Ouse.

Businesses and homes near the rivers are under several feet of standing water, and some rivers are predicted to swell to 20 feet above their normal levels. Residences and offices have been evacuated, roads have washed out, and calls are being made for volunteers to fill sandbags in an effort to minimize impending damage.

Conditions forced officials to close the M5 freeway, causing hundreds to spend the night in their cars. Rail passengers in Oxford and Banbury were also stranded and forced to sleep in makeshift arrangements inside public buildings.

Up to 350,000 Gloucestershire residents will lose water service when the Thames and the Severn overflow their banks later today, according to the area’s water utility service. Approximately 15,000 other homes in Gloucestershire are without power. County emergency services report that the equivalent of a month’s rain fell in only two hours, and that conditions will remain critical over the next few days.

Some parts of Worcestershire are 6 feet under water, and rescue crews have had to use lifeboats to carry out their operations. Rail stations, freeways and airports are suffering numerous delays.

The government has deployed the army to assist flooded out Upton-upon-Severn residents, and the Royal Air Force reported that its largest peacetime operation ever is underway, with six Sea King helicopters airlifting up to 120 people.

“These are the sorts of rainfalls we experience in the past every 100 years, every 150 years, sometimes every 200 years. They’re very extreme,” chief executive of the Environment Agency Baroness Young said.

The Association of British Insurers said that the cost of this month’s and last month’s floods might reach £2 billion.

For more on weather-related disasters, return to theTrumpet.com to read “Flash Floods, Scorched Earth” in the upcoming issue of the Trumpet.