Thousands of people were moved from English coastal areas last night and the River Thames flood barrier protecting London was closed after warnings of the worst tidal surge in 60 years. The Environment Agency said people were at risk of being swept into the sea and were removed from high-risk areas in places such as Great Yarmouth on the east coast. As of 8:22 a.m., 37 severe flood warnings had been issued for England and Wales , the agency said on its website . Seventeen of the alerts, which mean there could be danger to life, were in the Anglian region, the most easterly in England. The U.K. government has called a meeting on the storm response. “In some areas, sea levels could be higher than those during the devastating floods of 1953,” the Environment Agency said on its website. “However, flood defenses built since then mean that many […]