Torrential rains and gale-force winds yesterday wreaked havoc from Cumbria to Cowes killing

Torrential rains and gale-force winds yesterday wreaked havoc from Cumbria to Cowes, killing at least six people and causing massive damage to property. Torrential rains and gale-force winds yesterday wreaked havoc from Cumbria to Cowes, killing at least six people and causing massive damage to property. Hundreds of homes were evacuated in winds that exceeded 90mph on the Mumbles peninsula, near Swansea, while two centimetres of rain fell in the Lake District.The Environment Agency said Worcestershire and Somerset were the worst hit and in Gloucester the agency expected river levels to rise even higher than in last month's floods "We are looking at a serious situation," said a spokesman. "The water we are seeing now on the Severn is from Sunday while the water that has fallen in the last two days has yet to come down the river."Last night, as the latest clean up got underway, the deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, ordered an inquiry into the flood-defence budget."It certainly isn't just about how many houses are involved, it is about how frequent [flooding] is and I think the present cost-benefit analysis doesn't allow for that so I have ordered an inquiry," he told MPs.As the number of fatalities rose, the life of Rosie Knight, aged three, was saved when her seven-year-old sister, Sophie, jumped into the river Avon near Salisbury and held the toddler's head above water until emergency services arrived.But such stories of success over the elements were rare. In Wickhambreux, Kent, farmers struggled to save the village from floods after the heaviest rainfall for nearly a century, but their attempts failed to stop the Little Stour river swamping all the low-lying houses. The village of Yalding in Kent, the West Sussex towns of Pulborough and Arundel, and towns on the Wye in Herefordshire and Gwent were also threatened.A helicopter and rescue boats searched in vain for a 19-year old man swept into the swollen river Irwell in Salford, Greater Manchester.Treacherous road conditions across the South were also blamed for other fatal accidents.

Police in Buckinghamshire said "dreadful" weather contributed to a car spinning out of control in Hazlemere, killing two men. A 25-year-old man died when his car smashed into a telephone pole in Weybridge, Surrey, and a man was seriously injured after his car crashed on a wet M23 in Crawley, West Sussex.The Environment Agency issued 134 flood warnings in all while the Territorial Army was on stand-by to help in the Worcestershire town of Upton upon Severn, which faces being cut off due to flooding of the two main roads into the town. Schools in Gloucestershire closed and about 40,000 people were left without electricity after high winds brought trees crashing down onto power lines. Fallen trees also severed phonelines and blocked roads.Some 8cm of rain has fallen in the low-lying Somerset Levels in December - already equalling the average monthly total - and residents yesterday moved livestock to higher ground and piled up sandbags as the Environment Agency prepared to evacuate 75 homes.In Wiltshire, a civil emergency was declared in the Salisbury area as it was hit by the worst floods since 1915. The occupants of a dozen houses in the Saxon village of Downton had to be evacuated when the river Avon burst its banks. The south coast, which bore the brunt of devastation in the last wave of storms, was again in crisis. Emergency services began evacuating traders and homeowners in Lewes as the Ouse threatened to burst its banks for the second time since October.Staff were moving historic items from Winchester Cathedral as water crept nearer to the 900-year-old building.

On the Isle of Wight, a disabled pensioner was rescued by firefighters after his car became submerged and a couple in Cowes woke to find a wall of their house had blown down.Many parts of south Wales were also hit by the latest wave of bad weather with all rivers on varying flood alerts. Traffic on the new Severn Bridge was restricted to two lanes after a 280-ton dredger collided with a column when its engines failed.A seasonal high tide - expected to reach seven metres - on the river Wye devastated Monmouth and Tintern, and was described by Gwent police as the "worst in decades".In Cardiff, 28 residents of a block of flats were evacuated to a leisure centre after the building's roof collapsed and police closed roads around the city centre after scaffolding on a 14-storey building was brought crashing down in high winds.The weather caused widespread disruption on the roads, closing the M1 and leaving a policeman with a broken arm after he became trapped between an overturned lorry and a crash barrier.Felixstowe, one of Britain's busiest ports, was shut due to high winds and hundreds of passengers were delayed as stormy seas made it too dangerous for three cross-Channel ferries to dock at Dover.On the railways, the West Coast mainline was closed between Hanslope and Rugby and London-Glasgow services were diverted while flooding closed the Swindon to Bristol and Taunton to Exeter lines.. A deeply psychotic patient was left to live almost unchecked in the community - and eventually to kill - because of repeated failures by health and social services, an inquiry reported yesterday. A deeply psychotic patient was left to live almost unchecked in the community - and eventually to kill - because of repeated failures by health and social services, an inquiry reported yesterday. Anthony Joseph killed his social worker, Jenny Morrison, 51, in a frenzied attack in which he stabbed her 127 times in a council hostel for the mentally ill in November 1998. He stabbed the "passionate and committed" key worker until the blade of his knife broke.Yesterday, a public inquiry report severely criticised the health authority and the social services responsible for his care, highlighting a series of failures that meant Joseph's potential risk was not made clear to staff."Several...

factors contributed to the likelihood of a serious incident happening. Both the hostel and Jenny Morrison were labouring under a less-than-full picture of Anthony Joseph's history," said Peter Herbert, the inquiry chairman "I am satisfied that matters are now in hand... but there is a national lesson to be learnt."Despite the criticisms, nobody from either the South West London & St George's Mental Health NHS Trust or Wandsworth Borough Council has been disciplined over the incident.Speaking after the inquiry published its findings, Ms Morrison's daughter, Tanya Corrigan, said: "All the authorities together have let us down. As early as 1996 all the warning signs were there and it should not have got this far."They failed her, they failed me, they failed my children. The whole family is very angry and it is not Joseph that we are angry with. He and his family were also let down."The inquiry's report said that two years before Ms Morrison was attacked, Joseph - who had a history of drug and alcohol abuse - had been categorised by the psychiatric team at Maudsley Hospital in London as potentially schiz-ophrenic and a danger to himself and others.Yet over the ensuing months and after his transfer to the neighbouring health and social care authorities, a breakdown in communication led to him being categorised as "low risk".Shortly before Joseph attacked his social worker he was described as a "quiet, amiable young man". The report revealed that Ms Morrison and the hostel workers had little or no idea of his violent past, criminal record, history of sleeping with a machete under his pillow or systematic unwillingness to take vital medication.Joseph had been released to the care of the hostel in Thurleigh Road, Balham, after five months in a psychiatric ward at Springfield Hospital, Tooting, in June 1998.

The doctor in charge, a locum called Dr Helen Read, had failed to check his history, arrange any appropriate risk assessment or discharge plan, the report said.While his parents - who were well acquainted with his violent past - were also not told of what was happening, Joseph failed to take his medication. As a consequence, he became increasingly disturbed and started drinking. Ms Morrison turned up to visit Joseph, aware that his condition had deteriorated but not informed that he had begun talking of "demons torturing him" that she "would be brave" to see him.By this point Joseph, his illness left to flourish unchecked, had become convinced that God was telling him to kill Ms Morrison. He was so disturbed that after he broke his knife attacking Ms Morrison he went back to the hostel kitchen and returned with another weapon.In July last year, he was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility and sent to Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital indefinitely.Yesterday, Duncan Selbie, chief executive of South West London & St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, said: "There will always be an element of risk in the work we do with mentally ill people." He added that "occasionally it will go wrong".Wandsworth, answering accusations that it breached its own regulations by having only one social worker on duty, said it had introduced a series of new safety measures including the locking away of dangerous knives and had increased the number of staff on duty.Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health group Sane, said: "The report is excellent in making no bones about the fact that there were alarming failures in the care and supervision of Anthony Joseph. It is a sadly familiar catalogue of failures listed by inquiries and it appears that nothing has been done.". US President Bill Clinton today bade goodbye to Britain with a speech urging continued close relations between the two countries - and between the world's rich and poor nations. US President Bill Clinton today bade goodbye to Britain with a speech urging continued close relations between the two countries - and between the world's rich and poor nations. He said Britain and the United States had an important friendship which would continue "through the ages and be strengthened through changes of party and from election to election".Mr Clinton then urged the world's nations to unite in a global assault on poverty, warning that they risk undercutting their own prosperity - and security - if they fail to help the desperately poor."Global poverty is a powder keg ignitable by our indifference," he said.Before an audience of students, academics and others at Warwick University, he argued the most prosperous countries have lapsed in their obligation to help nations that are raked by the maladies of poverty: Disease, malnutrition, illiteracy and a general loss of human potential.He said one of his most fervent wishes as he leaves office is that the global community agree to take up this cause."Globalization need not benefit only the advanced nations," Clinton said.