this is bbc news. the headlines. flooding caused by storm dennis is declared a major incident by police in south wales, as flooding and landslides lead to a number of road closures. the welsh government says extra funding will be made available in response to the damage. by tomorrow we hope the weather forecast says we'll be into the phase where we are beginning to recoverfrom it and seeing what needs to be done to help. heavy rain and strong winds continue to lash large parts of the uk, with hundreds of flood alerts in place, including six severe warnings — meaning there's a danger to life. itv says its devastated by the death of love island presenter caroline flack. the broadcaster says tonight's episode of the reality series won't go ahead.

us citizens quarantined for days on a cruise ship injapan are leaving, after america sends two planes to take them home. and coming up in half an hour on sportsday... england completes the second highest t20 run chase in their history to win the series. good evening. parts of south wales and england have endured flooded homes and streets — and landslides — after storm dennis brought heavy rain and strong winds to much of the uk. hundreds of flood warnings and alerts are in place across the country.

scotland was affected — and northern ireland partly too by the weather, but south wales has borne the brunt of the storm — with a major incident declared by police. hundreds of people were moved from their homes in the village of nantgaru near cardiff, from where tomos morgan sent this report. a consequence, a landslide, south wales bearing the brunt of the latest firm to hit the uk. in nantgarw just north of latest firm to hit the uk. in nantgarwjust north of cardiff, many of the residents here will never have witnessed anything quite like this. their road has been turned into a river, cars submerged, storm dennis. over 100 homes have been ruined by the flooding. carolyn has been here four years, she was rescued alongside her 96—year—old father whose birthday it is today.

the only thing i've managed to save it as his medals from the war. range, everything. i've lost everything. i've got a photo here i'iow. everything. i've got a photo here now. at the time, ijust grabbed every towel and blanket i could find and pushed up against the front door, just thinking it was going to come in through the front door because we had already got sandbags, because we had already got sandbags, because sometimes the floods are small with the drains. but as we we re small with the drains. but as we were trying to block the front door, was pouring into the back door as well and there was nothing we could do. here in nantgarwjust north of cardiff, over 100 homes have been ruined by the rain. rescue services have been here since 5am taking residence from their home to safety, after storm dennis wreaks havoc across south wales. several other communities in wales have also needed emergency services to help them to safety. a0 residents here

we re them to safety. a0 residents here were evacuated in the early hours. this exact same street was hit in 2018 after storm callum. it was clear after the met office issued its highest red warning for rain this morning that the welsh valleys would be suffering. at around lunchtime, a major incident was declared across south wales. since midnight last night, south wales fire and rescue service of his peers over 1300 calls which is unprecedented. in that time we have carried out 70s sex life rescues and have had a large number of life —related calls as well. —— we have carried out 70 life rescues. further warnings for rain and wind remain in place until this evening. last week it was storm chiara, this week at a storm dennis. it's effects have undoubtedly been worse here in south wales. earlier i spoke to richard prendergast who is a brigade manager

for south wales fire and rescue service — and i asked him how busy it's been, and what the priorities have been, for his staff. we've been incredibly busy. we have had nearly 1a00 emergency calls in just over 12 hours. we carried out 80 rescues of the public are needed as. this has been unprecedented. i think we've had a very short time, it is like a mud size in some part of south wales. at one time there are red warnings in place, which means there is a risk to life. how dangerous a situation where your cruise facing? as they try to help other people? it was a massively dangerous condition, but they are

well equipped, well—trained and really prioritise the public, so obviously they have done an amazing job thus far, and our main hope is that we avoid further loss of life. we know now that these red warnings have thankfully passed, but that doesn't mean that we are in the all clear. how are you monitoring the situation? what are you still involved with? the gold command multi—agency meeting, working with oui’ multi—agency meeting, working with our partners in national resources wales, the environment agency and the met office. the situation continues to improve, we are now concerned about the public in flat lands and we are looking to carry out evacuations of properties they are, to try and get the public out of harms reach. nearly 600 flood warnings and alerts are in place in england, more than any other day on record. road, rail and air travel have been badly disrupted, with several rail lines in the south west, wales, the midlands

and scotland blocked by flooding. parts of the east midlands have been particularly badly affected, and heavy rain is expected to continue through the night. jon kay sent this report from tenbury wells in worcestershire. it isa it is a race against time and tenbury wells tonight, as water levels continue to rise. this old market town is pretty much cut off after the river burst its banks early this morning. more than 100 homes have been evacuated and some roads are impassable. you've still got to wade through a couple of foot of water. ben is stuck, struggling to return to his flat and unable to leave the town. i was devastated because you can get out, people stuck in their houses. the fire and rescue have been around in boats getting people temporary shelter in the high school, but is unbearable for people who can get out. you lose

your self dependence, don't you? it's pretty bad to bear. from the river clyde in glasgow, to devon and cornwall, storm dennis has been an unwelcome weekend guest in almost every pa rt unwelcome weekend guest in almost every part of the uk. vast areas overwhelmed by huge quantities of rainfall. record numbers of flood warnings. rescue teams and the authorities stretched to the limit. we are doing more and more than ever before in terms of investing in flood defences, protecting more homes than we never been able to before. we are seeing a higher frequency of the sort of freak weather events. it hasn't been this bad in tenbury wells since 2007. some here question if enough here has been done to protect communities like this that are at risk of flooding. andy and hannah have spent the day hoping against hope that their property will stay dry this

time. what's it like just their property will stay dry this time. what's it likejust watching, waiting? it is horrible. we have seen the mess before and we know the message is going to leave. it is just destruction and the town doesn't need it. you know, we are not the only ones. you and wellies. she had abandoned her car to get to herjob any local care home. after dropping a bit this afternoon, the water levels here in tenbury wells are now starting to rise again. it is going to be another anxious night. and for the latest information on storm dennis in your area, just go to your local bbc online pages, or tune in to bbc local radio. further tributes have been paid to caroline flack, the tv presenter, who was found dead at her home yesterday. herfamily‘s lawyer said she had taken her own life. laura whitmore, who succeeded caroline as presenter of love island, criticised newspapers and social media users over their treatment of her friend.

the broadcasters put out the following comment... love island will return tomorrow night which will include a tribute to caroline who will be forever

caroline flack, a life that appears successful and glamorous, until december last year when she was arrested and charged for assaulting her boyfriend. yesterday her family confirmed she had taken her own life. today, friend and fellow presenter laura whitmore, who replaces her on the violent, could not hide her grief and anger. anyone who knew caroline knew she was a vivacious, loving and had a passion for life. to the press, the newspapers who create click bait and demonise and tear down success, we've had enough. you don't have to tear down someone to feel good about yourself. there have been many other tributes from friends, fans and fellow celebrities. a media scrum at her first court appearance, distressing allegations she denied.

a trial date in march and bail conditions banning any contact with her boyfriend lewis burton. he denied being a victim and didn't want the prosecution to go ahead. today, he posted this message. "my heart is broken and we had something so special." he also appeared to criticise the way the case was handled, saying "i was not allowed to be there this time. "i kept asking and asking." questions too from her management, who labelled it a show trial. the crown prosecution service says it won't comment. is thought itv executives are now meeting to make a decision about night's episode of love i went and the long—term future of the show. weeks before her death, she wrote of the weight of media intrusion saying...

as angus crawford mentioned in his report — caroline flack's management team have criticised the crown prosecution service for refusing to drop charges that she assaulted her boyfriend, even though he didn't support their case. earlier i spoke to our home affairs correspondent june kelly about the issues involved. the crown prosecution service, although they won't discuss this case, they will say that to bring any prosecution, it has to meet two benchmarks. first of all, there has to be a realistic prospect of conviction so they can'tjust take a case to court because they think somebody should be prosecuted, they have to think there could be a chance that the person who was in court and in the dock could be convicted and the other benchmark is that the case has to be in the public interest. in terms of caroline flack's mental state, if this case had got to court, her lawyers would have been able to have put evidence before the court about her mental state

and that would have been considered by the magistrate who was dealing with the case because it was going to be a magistrate who dealt with this case, it wasn't deemed serious enough that it had to go to crown court. her boyfriend, lewis burton, has said, i didn't want this case to proceed. what bearing does that have? that really doesn't have any bearing at all martine, because we have seen in a number of domestic abuse allegations where cases have got to court where the person, the alleged victim has withdrawn consent to the prosecution and certainly there has been a big focus, a big push on police and prosecutors in recent years to bring more domestic abuse cases to court and take them more seriously and also when they examine the behaviour of the alleged complainant to look and see, is there a reason that person doesn't want the case to get to court? we don't know of course what the situation was in this but the fact that he has said that, really, that can't bear down on the prosecutors' decision. they must have felt that there

was enough evidence for this case to be tested in court. how mindful then are prosecutors in the crown prosecution service of the impact on the mental health of people who find themselves in the system, particularly defendants? well, i think, as i say, the cps aren't making a particular comment on this particular case but last autumn the director of public prosecutions, max hill, said, i am not suggesting we should stop prosecuting people with mental health conditions or disorders but what we need to do is balance our approach and ensure that those with mental health conditions, and he said i'm including victims and witnesses in this, are treated fairly and proportionately. so that goes back to the point that if caroline flack had been in court, all of her mental health issues should have been looked at and dealt with and there should have been reports but clearly, there is massive anger amongst those who loved her about what has happened.

the headlines on bbc news... a major incident is declared by police in south wales, as flooding and landslides caused by storm denis lead to a number of road closures. itv says its devastated by the death of love island presenter caroline flack. the broadcaster says tonight's episode of the reality series won't be aired. us citizens quarantined for days on a cruise ship injapan are leaving, after america sends two planes to take them home. further restrictions have been imposed on people living in hubei province in china — the area at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. only one person from each household will be allowed out every three days. meanwhile british passengers who've been quarantined on a cruise liner off japan have criticised the uk government — after the us sent

two aircraft to bring home american citizens. there are now 355 cases of coronavirus on the ship. from yokohama, rupert wingfield—hayes reports. now calling only those american guests from emerald deck... for the americans, at least this is the moment that for many could not come soon enough. on the dockside, the buses lining up, ready to take them to tokyo airport and an evacuation flight home. in the last two days, there has been a steady stream of ambulances removing infected passengers from the diamond princess. 70 new cases were confirmed aboard the ship today alone. when i got through to americans gaye and phil courter in their cabin, they were frantically packing, more than eager to get off the ship. saying from day one,

i do not feel safe on this ship. i don't know how more of us who have been sitting here for 12 days aren't getting contaminated, but something is going wrong. this is a failed quarantine. it is very clear from the statement that the us government has made that it is worried the quarantine on board the ship is not working and that its citizens are in danger. and that's why it has decided to take them off. several other governments have now followed, including canada, hong kong and taiwan. so the pressure is really now on the british government to make a response. united kingdom... from his cabin, britain david abel has been using social media to express his feelings at the british government's perceived lack of action. it feels that we have been forgotten, that you don't really care about us and that you're actually not wanting us to come home. at tokyo's haneda airport tonight, the us chartered planes touched down. the american evacuees now face a grueling flight and

another quarantine. but those we spoke to say they prefer that to spending another day on a ship where they do not feel safe. not everyone who could leave the quarantined ship has done so, earlier we spoke to matthew smith who decided to stay onboard with his wife, due to concerns over how they would be transported home. we were concerned about the conditions of the evacuation. with the us government leaving apparently that the quarantine weeping and was ineffective, they decided none to put all the americans being evacuated to gather onto ten coaches, which we saw drive away few minutes ago and on to take aeroplanes back to the united states and clearly non—quara ntine conditions, so in fact if people

have acquired the virus, whether before or after the quarantine, they are now pushing a very close position of communicating it to others and we were frustrated that the quarantine we have done so far here, according to the requirements of the japanese officials, was not going to mean anything because they're putting the americans going home into 1a more of quarantine. the government's forthcoming budget may be delayed, according to a cabinet minister. it was due to be held on march 11th, but that date has been thrown into doubt after sajid javid resigned as chancellor on thursday. he was replaced by rishi sunak. the transport secretary grant shapps said the new chancellor would decide the date. thousands of passengers are facing major disruption at heathrow airport after a systems failure affecting all terminals. travellers described the situation as ‘chaos', with departure screens not working and no announcements, leaving people unsure where to go to get their flights. the airport said they are experiencing technical problems, and deploying passenger ambassadors to show people to their gates ,

but it's not yet known when the problems will be resolved. well, i'm joined in the studio by our business correspondent, katy austin, who's following this story for us. on top of disruption yesterday because of the storm, we now have technical problems at heathrow. exactly technical problems at heathrow. exa ctly a nd technical problems at heathrow. exactly and that's not going to make it much fun for many passengers at heathrow airport today. as you say, there is already some disruption because of particularly the high winds that were caused by the storm, and now pastures have been turning up, initial was that people couldn't find their gate. it turned out that it problems were affecting all terminals and a lot of the flight information boards aren't working. that is obviously very confusing for passengers and there has even been pictures of white boards where gate information is being written down manually. at heathrow airport, they acknowledge the problem is, notjust the information boards being affected, check—in is affected and a

lot of the systems around the airport, including security we believe, are just airport, including security we believe, arejust going airport, including security we believe, are just going very slowly. things are not moving quickly. the only solution that can be offered until the it problem expects is that extra staff are being laid on, both by heathrow and by the individual airlines. british airways of course particularly large in his presence at heathrow, they have got extra staff who are having to kind of physically show passengers where their gates are. do they know why this is happening? they don't know yet, that they have said, anyway. we think it has been going on for a few hours now, so doubtless there will be lots of effort going on behind the scenes to get things working as normal again. it is certainly very frustrating for passengers, on top of any disruption they might already have experienced as a result of the song. there were so many cancellations yesterday of flights in various places. what are the knock—on effects because mac are they being delayed or cancelled?

knock—on effects because mac are they being delayed or cancelled7m is really unclear what is actually specifically being caused by the it problems, when it comes to flights being delayed or cancelled at the moment. as i say, it is hard to tell what it is because of that and what is because of anything left over from the impact of the weather. the real impact for passengers is that slight sense of chaos. when you're at the airport, it is a stressful time anyway, so being confused or not knowing exactly what is happening is very frustrating for passengers and many of them have been venting on social media. may as a day. we are so dependent upon technology. welljoining us now, we have someone at heathrow airport who can tell us what's going on, ellie gould. sorry, it's caitlin. we left kate —— we left cornell this morning is on a train was cancelled so we ended up driving. our british airways flight was cancelled —— cornwall. now we

are stuck in terminal two and checking whiteboards to find out. are stuck in terminal two and checking whiteboards to find outm has all gone very low—tech all of a sudden, hasn't the? even checking m, sudden, hasn't the? even checking in, if you had your boarding pass on the phone it didn't work.|j in, if you had your boarding pass on the phone it didn't work. i always like a bit of paper in my hand, just in case, i'm a bit old school in that way. tell us how visible these extra passenger ambassadors are caitlin, who are supposed to have been brought in by the airlines and the airport? if you can find them they are really helpful and are trying hard, it isjust they are really helpful and are trying hard, it is just a they are really helpful and are trying hard, it isjust a matter of if you're at the gate, there is almost no information. so people are working round the signs trying to find other people to take them to the right gate. so it is really confusing, because none of the online information matches up with any of the boards, so you are at the whim of checking a whiteboard every half an hour. how far into the journey in the process have you

managed to get? because everything will be affected, security, immigration, the works. yeah, we've been sat at her gate now since about four o'clock, just waiting to find out. we are hoping we might lead by seven, but we got a connecting flight seven, but we got a connecting flight in munich and we don't know what is going to happen with that, if we're going to get to our destination today or not. how much help are you hoping will get? in terms of accommodation if you need it, in terms of being fed and water and access to things like that? yeah, right now we have been told anything about that type of thing. the only thing we are being told is that when we get to munich, they will tell us what they will do for us will tell us what they will do for us there. we have no idea about what the situation is. it's not really the situation is. it's not really the staff's fall, they have no knowledge either. if you go to the gate they don't know other waters been told from the flight booking at that time. you sound very sanguine

at the moment, i hope it stays that way. will say, it's been a long day. i hope it's not too much longer. thank you are talking to us from heathrow airport. lets return to our top story now — major incidents have been declared in south wales and parts of england after flooding and landslides, as storm dennis continues to batter the uk. life continues as normal here in york. flood gates are closed, there is an operation to stop the water. the army has been out attributing hundreds of sandbags but the environment agency says any flooding will not be as severe as it was back in 2000. that is what they are expecting, that is when it was at its highest level ever recorded. 33

flood warnings in place at the moment in north yorkshire, eight in and around york itself. really this evening it is all about preparation, people being told to protect their properties and monitor the situation over the next 2a hours. the town of hawick has been hit by severe flooding as storm dennis passed across scotland. alexandra mackenzie has spent the day there. it has been a horrible day here. last night three rivers in the borders reached record levels, causing flooding. the tv behind me are still looking very angry this evening. as we came in to the village area, we can see that many of the fields surrounding the town we re of the fields surrounding the town were completely saturated and many of the villages around here, people have been evacuated from their properties and some homes and some businesses have been flooded. the council has set up an emergency

planning bunker, and they have been involved in the clear up process. that is not the end of the weather story here in scotland, as you say. it does look very windy here tonight and there is a yellow weather warning, a yellow wind warning in place for the whole of scotland tonight. that will last until around 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. the transport secretary grant shapps has denied holding any talks with china about building the hs2 high speed rail line. it's reported the china railway construction corporation wrote to hs2 limited last month, saying it could complete the project faster and more cheaply than current plans. mr shapps was speaking on the andrew marr show earlier: i think what's happened is they have clearly had a letter sent to hs2 limited. there has been no conversation with me as a minister, as the secretary of state, or not. but i have to say, by the way, i kind of really want to get this thing built faster, if it's possible.

so we would be fools not to have a conversation, but i think, you know, five years, when you look at what is required and the contracts that need to be laid and so on and so forth, it is an enormous project. you are not going to build it in five years. thousands of australians have attended a ten—hour fundraising concert for those affected by the recent bushfires. alice cooper, and oueenjoined local stars like 5 seconds of summer and tina arena in sydney. the australian government has come in for harsh criticism for its response to the disaster. the comedian, celeste barber, opened the event: the volunteers across this entire country, they are the ones who have saved us. they are the ones who actively go out and help. they are the ones... cheering. they are the ones that cancel holidays to stay cheering.

they are the ones that cancel holidays to stay here and look after us. sir eltonjohn has been forced to cut short a concert in new zealand, afterfalling ill with walking pneumonia. the 72—year—old musician, who was visibily upset, lost his voice mid—way through his set at auckland's mount smart stadium. he told concer—goers "i can't sing, i've got to go, i'm sorry". earlier in the set he'd told the crowd that he'd been diagnosed with the infection, hello, met office amber rain warnings are coming to an end as the rain tends to move through. we have still got lots of flood warnings across the uk, record numbers earlier today. in england. and still some severe flooding in places as well. the main reign band moving

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