On the outskirts of Worcester, it was reported that a pregnant woman gave birth in a caravan held up in a nine-mile traffic jam.

In a happy ending that might have been written by a Hollywood scriptwriter, a midwife was travelling two cars behind and helped the woman – from Halifax, West Yorkshire – to deliver the baby safely. Another pregnant woman also had to be rescued by a helicopter crew when the ambulance she was travelling to hospital in became stranded.

Fire crews were also inundated. Alex Mackie, spokesman for the Hereford and Worcester Fire Service described the situation as “mayhem and chaos” and said more than 2,000 calls had been received in 27 hours, with 750 people being rescued.

He added: “Most of the A, B and C roads in Worcestershire and Hereford­shire remain flooded and we are advising people not to get out of their cars if they’re trapped in them, but to try to notify the authorities where they are.”

He added: “We’re unable to get to some of the areas because of vehicles that have been abandoned.”

A team of 10 lifeboat crew and four inshore lifeboats helped in operations in Droitwich, Kidderminster, Wick, Pershore and Hawford. Several elderly people had to be rescued from their homes.

Would-be holidaymakers on many roads were faced with spending the night in their vehicles, or in hastily set up emergency shelters. Welfare missions were launched to find food and sleeping bags for people forced to sleep in leisure centres overnight.

Several hundred people – mainly stranded rail and coach passengers – had to spend Friday night at a rest centre at GL1, a leisure complex in Gloucester.

The Carr family from Birmingham were among around 200 people still at the centre at lunchtime yesterday. Dad Darren, 34, was travelling with his wife Tina, 31, his mother and his three children on a train from Somerset.

He said: “Everyone here has been brilliant in the way they have looked after us, but we just want our own beds and a shower now.”

Rest centres were also set up in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Chipping Campden and Moreton-in-Marsh.

Back on the M5, just south of Gloucester, the Taylor family, left,  from Leeds were still stranded at Michaelwood service station after 10 hours yesterday, having set off from their home in Leeds at 1.30am.

Mandy Taylor, who was travelling to the West Country, with husband Phil and children Hayden and Caitlan, said: “It’s been a nightmare. We have no idea when we are going to get to our destination.”

Pupils and teachers at the Vale of Evesham Special School in Evesham, Worcs, were also marooned, with 37 children forced to stay put on Friday night because parents were unable to get through the flooded roads to pick them up. They were joined by 33 members of staff.

Headteacher Ann Starr said yesterday: “We came to school as normal on Friday morning but the flooding was looking bad at lunchtime so we called out coaches to pick up the children early, and contacted as many parents as we could.

“By 4.30pm it was clear that those who hadn’t been collected would be here for the night. We raided the freezers and the cook made tea for us all.

“We have 15 beds for weekly residential boarders so some children were able to use those, the rest made do with PE mats and spare blankets.

“The teachers made do with a few hours sleep on chairs. We are not in a life-and-death situation, but we are making contingency plans for the next 24 hours because there are no signs of improvement.”

“Tim Brain, chief constable of Gloucestershire police said the force had attended more than 1,600 incidents in eight hours.

He said: “We received five times the level of incident reports we would normally expect.”

He bristled at suggestions that more could have been done to help those left stranded on the county’s roads.

He said: “I don’t really think you can make it an issue with the police that we have had unprecedented levels of rain.”