Specialist Shropshire boat crew helps residents left stranded by Storm Desmond

The team of six specially trained firefighters from the service's boat service in Shrewsbury was sent up to the flood-stricken county on Sunday to help the flood-stricken county.

Andy Johnson, area manager for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, said six firefighters and a welfare officer were despatched to Cumbria during the early hours of Sunday morning, following a request for assistance.

Mr Johnson said the team had been based in the Kendal area.

On Monday they spent the day in the village of Warwick Bridge, near Carlisle, where they rescued a couple and their two dogs who had been trapped inside their flooded home, and yesterday they were deployed in and around Kendall.

Mr Johnson said it is not yet known how long they would be expected to remain in Cumbria.

He said the crew are very experienced in dealing with such situations.

"They are specially trained, not just within boats, but also in moving around in water safely," said Mr Johnson.

"They have got experience of dealing with this sort of thing, both within Shropshire – not on the scale of what they have got there – but also around the country.

"In recent years they have been working around the country

"They are specialist crews used to the type of water risks we have here in Shropshire, predominantly in the Shrewsbury area, but also when we go through flooding in Melverley and Ironbridge."

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for more rain this week as northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland brace themselves for continued heavy downpours.

Homes and businesses in northern England and southern Scotland were left devastated by record rainfall, and the extreme weather which struck the Britain Isles, claiming three lives.

Electricity North West said yesterday that engineers had restored power to all but 2,525 homes in Lancaster and 1,514 in Cumbria affected over the weekend.

Some 42,000 homes and businesses in Lancaster, Morecambe and Carnforth were left without power after "unforeseen flood damage" at a substation in Lancaster caused them to lose supply on Monday.

Cumbria Police said today its estimated worst-case scenario was as many as 6,425 homes were flooded in the county after Desmond struck.