Monday, November 23, 2009 LONDON: Engineers and emergency workers checked hundreds of bridges for damage on Sunday, fearful some could collapse and isolate villages, as heavy rain lashed northwest England.In the southwest, a 46-year-old canoeist, believed to be from the Reading area died after becoming wedged under trees on the flooded River Dart near Newton Abbot in Devon on Saturday.A search was under way for a 21-year-old woman believed to have been swept into the River Usk in Brecon, mid-Wales, late on Saturday.Conditions were predicted to worsen on Sunday, with up to 50 mm (2 inches) of rain on high ground, and winds inland of up to 55 mph (90 kph)."I have spoken to people...they are running short of food, they are running short of medication. Things are getting pretty desperate," Tony Cunningham, member of parliament for Workington, told a local television channel.He said some people were having travel about 35 miles to get food and milk because of diversions.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the worst hit area, Cumbria, on Saturday to see the damage caused by record rainfall, and pledged 1 million pounds ($1.51 million) of aid.Heavy rain during the past few days has left hundreds of people sheltering in rescue centres, hotels and with family and friends, with the expectation that some will not be able to move back into their homes for up to six months.Water levels were receding on Sunday, but one bridge in particular, Calva Bridge in Workington, Cumbria, was described as extremely unstable and "could potentially collapse at any time".Five bridges have already collapsed in the area, including one in Workington which resulted in the death of Police Constable Bill Barker.He was directing motorists off the bridge when it collapsed, sweeping him down river.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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