Clean up underway after Storm Ciara, with more bad weather to come

Communities across Cumbria and southern Scotland are once again counting the cost of widespread damage from a winter storm, with warnings of more possible disruption to come.

Gale-force winds of up to 90 miles an hour pounded the region and a month's worth of rainfall fell in just one day as [**Storm Ciara**](http://Storm Ciara to hit region on Sunday) left homes and businesses under water, felled trees and brought road and rail traffic to a standstill.

In Hawick yesterday the front of a bistro collapsed after the building's foundations were swept away. Project Hawick has set up a Crowd Funding page to support all the businesses affected in the town.

In Carlisle it was a nervous evening for households in the Warwick Road area of the city where evacuation plans were drawn up as water levels rose rapidly.

The Whitesands in Dumfries as well as numerous roads in the surrounding area saw flooding. On the railways, trains were brought to a halt along the West Coast Mainline north of Preston.

Appleby was one of the worst-hit areas in the UK, where residents battled to save their homes from the River Eden. More than six inches of rain fell in Cumbria in 24 hours. Other parts of county, including Kendal, Keswick and Shap were also hit by flooding.

Cumbrian MP Tim Farron will meet the floods minister, Rebecca Pow today to make the case for the Government to get on with putting in place flood defences to protect people along the River Kent in the wake of the damage.

Rail services are still disrupted north of Carlisle with hundreds of passengers having to use replacement buses.

Further bad weather is expected, with the Met Office predicting snow and Ice this evening.