On Friday 20th July 2007 up to 5 inches of rain fell across central and southern England on already saturated ground Rivers rose rapidly and by saturday flooding started to occur along the Severn corridor Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire was particularly badly hit where the rivers Severn and Avon meet River s rose to unprecedented levels causing the worst ever floods Thousands of homes were inundated with people haing to be evacuated many by boat or by Sea King helicopter The Myth water treatment plant in the town was also flooded cutting off water supplies to around 350 000 people with the water predicted to be off for up to 2 weeks Many also had their electricity supplies cut off as sub stations were affected by the floods Estimates for the cost of the devastating and unprecedented summer floods are arounf 5 billion The Tewkesbury floods made news around the world Here the Germans put their towel down first