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Army may help flood-hit Somerset | Army may help flood-hit Somerset |
(35 minutes later) | |
Army help for flood-hit Somerset is being discussed, the environment secretary has said. | Army help for flood-hit Somerset is being discussed, the environment secretary has said. |
Owen Paterson said the Ministry of Defence may "deploy specialist vehicles" to help flooded villages. | Owen Paterson said the Ministry of Defence may "deploy specialist vehicles" to help flooded villages. |
Mr Paterson, who has been chairing the government's emergency Cobra committee, said: "We had a very constructive discussion with Somerset County Council - who have asked for assistance today." | |
The Somerset Levels have been badly hit by flooding in recent weeks. | |
Villages such as Muchelney have been cut off for almost a month and about 11,500 hectares (28,420 acres) of the Somerset Levels are flooded by about 65 million cubic metres of water. | |
Earlier, David Cameron announced that rivers in Somerset would be dredged as soon as water levels drop. | |
He said: "We are urgently exploring what further help the government can give to local residents to move around and will rule nothing out in the days ahead to get this problem sorted." | He said: "We are urgently exploring what further help the government can give to local residents to move around and will rule nothing out in the days ahead to get this problem sorted." |
'Sandbag help' | |
The Environment Agency has been pumping water from the Somerset Levels and has extra pumps working on Northmoor and Saltmoor. | |
Mr Paterson said the council had asked "for assistance for the first time today" and with "further bad weather forecast in the coming days" there was a "risk to a significant number of properties from flooding". | |
He said: "As we speak the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Local Government are discussing how we could deploy specialist vehicles which could help some of those villages which have been cut off. | |
"Secondly there will also be help with sandbags which could help prevent further flooding." |