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Tesco on Warwick Street, Carlisle

A Tesco Superstore and a Sainsbury’s in central Carlisle are under water following severe flooding in Cumbria and Lancashire that has left around 10,000 homes without electricity.

Storm Desmond saw around 340mm of rain fall in 24 hours, according to provisional figures reported by BBC News, which would be a new British record if verified.

Helicopter footage tweeted by Tesco shows the retailer’s store at Warwick Road, Carlisle, surrounded by deep water, while another image posted by a member of the public shows similar flooding at the Sainsbury’s. A spokesperson for Sainsbury's said the retailer is still assessing the damage so has no specific details about damage to produce or disruption to deliveries.

Tesco said its Carlisle had to close due to flooding yesterday (6 December) and staff are working hard to reopen as quickly as possible. 'Our dotcom colleagues continue to get deliveries to customer’s homes and our distribution team has managed to continue to get food and essentials through to stores, making sure that customers can still get what they want when they shop with us,' Tesco said.

Road and rail services have been severely disrupted with no trains running between Carlisle and Scotland today (7 December) due to flooding and a landslip.

Livestock has been left stranded, while the B5295 bridge at Braithwaite and Pooley Bridge in the Eden District have been washed away.

Fruit and veg wholesaler A Stephenson, based in Appleby-in-Westmorland, which has been affected by floods, tweeted that its warehouse is open as usual, although its retail store is without power.

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The NFU in the north west has tweeted messages of support, while farming charity Forage Aid is offering support to those affected by the floods.

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John Leyland, deputy director of operations at the Environment Agency told the BBC that the amount of rainfall was “beyond the forecasts” and the model used by the EA to trigger flood warnings does not account for persistent heavy rain.

Environment minister Liz Truss this morning attended an emergency meeting of the Cobra committee. In a statement she said flood defences performed as they were designed to, but exceptional rainfall had led to defences being breached.

“Storm Desmond has largely passed, but rivers remain swollen and the ground is saturated by the significant volumes of rain we have seen in recent weeks,” she said.

“In particular, we are carefully monitoring the situation in Carlisle and York where river levels have not yet reached their peak.”

Flood Minister Rory Stewart has been in Cumbria since Saturday, and Truss said she will be travelling to Cumbria later today. She urged those in affected areas to monitor the Environment Agency's webstie and twitter for the latest information.

As of this morning (7 December) there are still 46 severe flood warnings in place for the north west of the country, a level that indicates danger to life.