A Cumbrian village has been flooded for the second time in days after heavy rain brought further misery to the area tonight. “The flood water is now starting to recede”.
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Mark Williamson, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “We have now restored power to the vast majority of homes in Cumbria”.
More than 350 military personnel were deployed Sunday in the town of Carlisle to help evacuate people to reception places as the water reached waist height in places.
Flood victims have angrily attacked the chancellor’s pledge of £50 million to help protect residents against future flooding, demanding instead that he “come and get his hands dirty” and help with the relief effort.
BUSINESSES affected by flooding in the aftermath of Storm Desmond are to receive initial emergency payments of up to €5,000 under Government plans due to finalised today.
The Environment Agency said it was closely monitoring the situation around the county and had issued two flood warnings for the Keswick area, where the level of the River Greta peaked at about 23:30 GMT. The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, a local MP, said the government must learn lessons that flooding is likely to be more frequent.
Clark said the funding package “ensures help is available to residents and businesses to get families back into their homes and businesses back trading again as quickly as possible”.
He said that measures taken in the wake of flooding in the area six years ago had not been enough to help the community this time around.
Local photographer Charlene Bell Tweeted: “We need #bigdiggers and we need them now”.
“After the floods of 2009 they dredged our beck but they didn’t do it deep enough, in my opinion, and they also didn’t fix the walls, which the water was coming through six years ago, so this year it just totally destroyed it because there was no cement left in the walls”, he told BBC Breakfast. Unless specific remedial actions have been taken, the floods will once again return to where they always have been – it’s just a matter of when.
“We’re waiting for the insurers now but the problem is we’d moved everything outside after Saturday’s flood so they could check it and they haven’t yet arrived, and now most of that has disappeared so I’m not sure what we’re going to do”.
Glenridding Bridge has been assessed this morning by structural engineers and has been confirmed as safe for opening to all traffic.
“Emergency services did a fantastic job overnight to support the local community”.
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“Events like this serve as a harsh reminder of the finite capacity of our flood defences, and the destructive impact extreme flooding has on our communities”, says Professor David Balmforth, Flood Expert and Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
