More cities under threat in Britain's worst floods in memory

The fate of more English cities, towns and villages hung in the balance on Tuesday as emergency crews built up defences against rising waters during Britain's worst floods in living memory.

The floods produced images of the town of Tewkesbury turned into an island, a helmeted rescuer carrying a baby in a blanket, an elderly woman winched from her home by a military helicopter and people wading through thigh-high waters.

The government's crisis response committee, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, or Cobra, met on Monday and again on Tuesday as some rivers topped levels reached during the floods in 1947, even as meteorologists forecast more rain.

The areas hit hardest by flooding, which began with exceptionally heavy rains last Friday, were Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

It left at least 350,000 homes without running water and 50,000 without power, but supplies were being restored.