Floods: Voluntary evacuations begin (From Witney Gazette)

Floods: Voluntary evacuations begin

4:13pm Saturday 19th January 2008 in Witney By Chris Kearney

Families in Bablockhythe are being given the option of voluntary evacuations.

Six further people from the area near Witney have elected to leave their homes, in addition to the three that were evacuated as a precautionary measure last night.

A rest centre for evacuees has been set up at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium but John Kelly, emergency planning officer for the county council, said he might close it because people were choosing to go to relatives instead.

He said: "Depending on the situation in Abingdon (where there has been an explosion), and whether we have any evacuees coming in from there, I expect to shut up our operation at the Kassam within the next couple of hours."

People living in Bablockhythe have been advised to leave the area as access is becoming increasingly difficult due to high water levels.

Fire and rescue spokesman Kerry Blair, said: "We are not forcing people to leave their homes, this is only a voluntary evacuation at the moment."

The Environment Agency has said it believes river levels have reached their height in Oxford now.

And while some tributaries upstream remain fairly high, this is not expected to affect the Oxford area.