Soldiers Help Bride Take the Plunge

The British army got a bride to her wedding on time Saturday when they ferried her across the waters of Britain’s worst floods in 50 years.

Flood waters in the northern English city of York blocked Anita Hudson’s path to the registry office. So her panic-stricken mother appealed to the army for help, and soldiers arrived in a multi-terrain truck lined with white tarpaulin.

“This is one of the most unusual operations I have taken part in, but we are delighted to transport Anita across the floods,” Battery Sgt. Maj. Steve Lavis said.

This is not the first time the weather has threatened the wedding.

Police had to tow the couple across the water in a dinghy to collect their wedding ring, and the wedding cake was destroyed when the bride’s family home was flooded.

The army’s gallantry came as southeast Britain was facing another weekend of misery, with forecasters warning that more heavy rain was likely.

The Environment Agency said it expected as much as 1.5 inches of rain in parts of the south and southeast, on land already saturated.

At least 12 people have died as a result of the flooding within the past two weeks.

Although forecasters expected the heavy rain to miss northern England this weekend, the agency said the flooded area to the south of York was bigger than Lake Windermere, Britain’s largest body of water.

“As the flood peaks move downstream, and if the wet weather associated with the current spell continues, the number of flooded properties will rise. It is too early to put a final loss figure on the event, but the combined insured losses from winds and flooding could reach 500 million pounds [$712 million],” said Michael Drayton at U.S.-based Risk Management Solutions.

The towns of Barlby and Selby, where 291 people had already been evacuated, were expected to be affected by high water levels for several more days.

British travelers faced even more disruption after floods cut key train routes and played havoc with plans to repair hundreds of miles of faulty track.

The main London-to-Brighton line remained closed after flooding caused an embankment to slip, leaving a rail suspended in the air, a Railtrack spokesman said.

With Britain suffering its wettest autumn on record, the Environment Agency said it still had 96 flood warnings in place across England and Wales, 15 of them critical.