(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-09 19:33

TIDAL SURGE

Britain's Environment Agency issued 8 severe flood warnings around Great Yarmouth on the east coast and less severe warnings in Yorkshire, in the northeast and Kent in the southeast.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a special meeting to coordinate the emergency response, a spokeswoman said.

"The height of the surge we are expecting on Friday morning happens around once every 20 years or so," said Stewart Wortley, Head of Storm Tide Forecasting at the Met Office.

Norfolk police said people in 7,500 homes in the Great Yarmouth area had been advised to leave and more than 200 elderly residents were evacuated from care homes.

Hundreds of families moved into school buildings where local authorities said they had room for 3,500 people. Highways and railways to Great Yarmouth were closed. A few surfers in wet suits were out trying to catch a wave as the sun rose.

StatoilHydro, BP and ConocoPhillips shut North Sea oil and gas fields producing a total 540,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), but StatoilHydro said on Friday that production had been hit less than feared.

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