LONDON - Britain was on flood alert Thursday as heavy rain pounded large parts of the country, hampering rail transport and worrying homeowners in vulnerable areas.

With sodden ground and rivers reaching the tops of their banks after a wet start to the new year, officials feared a repeat of the floods that hit Britain in October 2000 after weeks of rain.

No less than 399 general flood warnings were in effect across England and Wales, including 21 in the southeastern countries of Sussex, Kent and Hampshire.

There could be flash floods almost anywhere. The rivers are right up to the tops of the banks and they just cannot take any more. This amount of rain coming through cannot get into the rivers -- and the only place it can go is into people's homes,

said Ray Kemp, a spokesman for the British environmental ministry, as a band of heavy rain swept across the southeast.

Is your area at flood risk? Click here for a map of Britain's wettest places (amount of rainfall past 48 hrs)
br>In West Sussex, firefighters used a boat Thursday to rescue an elderly couple trapped in the upstairs of their house at Pulborough after flood waters swamped the ground floor. Rail workers meanwhile aimed to reopen next Monday the busy London-Brighton line after a landslide on New Year's Day derailed a passenger train with 105 people on board. One man was injured with whiplash in the incident.

National Rail, which represents 26 rail operators, reported seven other rail lines on which services were disrupted or cancelled Thursday due to flooding along the tracks.

For those on the road, Kemp advised motorists to be "very wary" of widespread road flooding, which could be so severe that cars would be in danger of being swept away.

Though no deaths or injuries were reported, heavy rain Wednesday forced the cancellation of premiership football matches at Fulham and Charlton, plus a dozen Nationwide League fixtures. Even a traditional duck race in Toton, Derbyshire was called off, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

Besides southeast England, there were 15 flood warnings in effect Thursday in the River Thames area, 21 in the southwest, nine in the northeast, 25 in the Midlands and 37 in East Anglia.

In addition, there are 271 flood watches -- one notch lower than a flood warning -- in England and Wales.

October 2000 marked the last major bout of flooding in Britain, but the biggest storm in recent decades was in October 1987 when extreme gales killed 19 people and left one billion pounds (1.61 billion dollars, 1.53 billion euros) in property damage.