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| Town remains cut off by flooding | |
| (about 6 hours later) | |
| Upton-on-Severn in Worcestershire remains cut off after some of the most severe flooding in recent memory. | |
| Basic supplies are running short, with no milk on sale in any shops. | |
| Firefighters are trying to pump out the Co-op in the town. Once they have done that the fire service is expected to make a delivery of bread and water. | |
| Medical supplies have also been flown in to the town by helicopter. However, the fire service said river levels peaked in the town on Sunday evening. | |
| Blues festival | |
| A spokeswoman for Hereford and Worcester Fire Service said crews had rescued everyone who wanted to leave homes and premises in Upton, and in nearby Evesham. | |
| She said: "The water has now peaked and it is beginning to recede. | She said: "The water has now peaked and it is beginning to recede. |
| We were impressed by the camaraderie Neil ParkinsonAir ambulance pilot | |
| "Crews are standing by just in case anything major happens. | |
| "Those who wanted to be rescued have been, and those who wanted to stay have been made comfortable and provided with bedding and food." | "Those who wanted to be rescued have been, and those who wanted to stay have been made comfortable and provided with bedding and food." |
| Richard Myers, a local butcher and volunteer for the Mercia Inshore Search and Rescue Service, said: "We were fetching people out of bedroom windows yesterday - floating them up New Street on boats. This is the worst I've ever known it. | |
| The floods are some of the worst in living memory | |
| He added: "Those who have been evacuated from anywhere are all at the health centre. | |
| "All the hotels are full and anybody who can put anybody up has put them up. | |
| "We've had to move into the flat above the shop because our house is under water." | |
| Some people, including Richard and Sheila O'Connell, from Totnes in Devon, came to Upton to attend the Blues Festival, which started on Friday, and have been trapped there ever since. | |
| Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) flew 250 kg of medical supplies into Upton-on-Severn, where a helicopter touched down in a school playground. | |
| Barrier deployment | |
| WNAA said it was one of the few places in the town where it was possible to land. | |
| Pilot Neil Parkinson said: "We were impressed by the camaraderie there. Fire trucks were waiting to take the supplies off to medical centres and local people formed a human chain to load them up as quickly as possible." | |
| Upton is cut off by air and to most road vehicles | |
| Meanwhile, the Environment Agency has defended the way it handled the deployment of Upton's mobile flood defence barriers, which are kept about 40 miles from the town. | |
| The vehicles carrying the barriers got stuck in traffic on the M5 on Friday, and the defences did not reach the town. | |
| The agency said it needed "significant certainty" to deploy the defences effectively, and added that the river levels were so high the water would have gone over the top of the barriers in any case. | |
| Elsewhere, up to 4,000 residents remain without water after a treatment works near Worcester was hit by the flooding. | |
| Welsh Water installed tankers of water and bottled water in and around Bromyard, Herefordshire, after the Whitbourne works was affected. | |
| 'Flood rubberneckers' | |
| Police in Worcestershire have said that opportunist thieves have been breaking into cars left abandoned in the south of the county because of flooding. | |
| A spokesman urged motorists to collect their vehicles as soon as possible. | A spokesman urged motorists to collect their vehicles as soon as possible. |
| The spokesman added that "flood rubberneckers" were also becoming a major problem. | The spokesman added that "flood rubberneckers" were also becoming a major problem. |
| He said many people have been ignoring flood warning signs and pulling up on the roadside to take photographs. | He said many people have been ignoring flood warning signs and pulling up on the roadside to take photographs. |
| Elsewhere, up to 40 elderly residents were evacuated from a care home near Hereford on Sunday night, the fire service said. | Elsewhere, up to 40 elderly residents were evacuated from a care home near Hereford on Sunday night, the fire service said. |
| Basic supplies are running short in the town | |
| They were taken from the flooded residential home in Fownhope Road, Hampton Bishop, to a nearby school for shelter. | They were taken from the flooded residential home in Fownhope Road, Hampton Bishop, to a nearby school for shelter. |
| Many other Hampton Bishop residents had to leave their homes on Sunday night after the River Lugg burst its banks. | Many other Hampton Bishop residents had to leave their homes on Sunday night after the River Lugg burst its banks. |
| New Road Bridge in Worcester, the main route across the River Severn which has burst its banks, had to be closed for safety reasons. | New Road Bridge in Worcester, the main route across the River Severn which has burst its banks, had to be closed for safety reasons. |
| It remained closed on Monday lunchtime, despite the fact it is no longer flooded. | |
| A West Mercia Police spokesman said: "The bridge has got to be further surveyed. | |
| "It's not just what's on the surface - it's what's underneath. | |
| "We just don't know whether it's safe yet." |