THE River Severn water levels are set to rise again with heavy rain expected over the next 48 hours. 

The already high river levels in and around Worcester are “on the rise again”, according to the area’s Environment Agency manager, with heavy rain forecast.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire manager, Dave Throup, said he and his colleagues are “preparing for the worst” as they work round the clock to check flood defences.

An island of debris which had gathered at Worcester Bridge following the recent rain and resultant floods was removed via crane today, causing around five hours of severe traffic disruption.

Persistent rain last month had caused considerable flooding across the country, with the River Severn’s levels rising to their highest in Worcester since 2014. 

Following the work, Mr Throup took to Twitter to record a video from the River Severn flood plain in Kempsey, to warn about the upcoming “bad weather”.

He said the river “never really recovered from the flooding that we had a couple of weeks ago” and more rain is expected over the “next 24-48 hours”.

“It’s a developing situation, there’s an element of uncertainty in the forecast in particular for Thursday when we could see a lot of rain in this part of the world, but we might not see much at all.

"We are preparing for the worst and if the worst does happen then the rivers are going to respond very quickly and we could see some high levels again, and it won’t just be the little rivers.

"The big rivers are also going to respond very quickly because there's much capacity in any of them."

He added, the River Severn flood plain is “already full before we get that additional rain”.

"We've got Environment Agency folk right across the country, actually, not just in Worcestershire here, getting ready for the worst.

"Here in Kempsey we're checking our flood defences, making sure everything is ready to go, putting in a bit of contingency should that be needed as well." 

The debris was originally due to be cleared last Monday (November 4), though this was postponed due to the change in river level making the operation unsafe.