Cumbria Flood Victims Appeal
The Master’s Voice is based in Cumbria amid the floods and devastation of the last week: these are our people - and they need your help
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Editor: Midge Todhunter
Cumbria is a big county. Driving to the office this morning it seemed half of it was under water. Three major road bridges have crumbled to the force of swollen rivers, another dozen bridges are suspect; roads across the county are closed-off due to flooding. And yet it rains.
These are not just steady downpours: these heaviest of rainstorms come lashing in across Ireland from the North Atlantic, driven by swirling, gale force winds. This rain is torrential.
The clean-up begins
This rain pings like hail stones against house windows; it gurgles down road drains until they are choked to capacity; it turns roads into rivers. And all the while the tidal water backing up from the estuaries meets the river water coming surging down from the fells and farmland. When these two forces of nature clash, the excess water has to go somewhere - and out it swells over the riverbanks.
5,000 people had to be evacuated from their flooded homes; some of them plucked from an upstairs window by air rescue teams with helicopters. Others brought to safety by lifeboat crews in red inflatable dinghies; their life’s belongings left behind to the mercy of the brutal floodwaters which waste everything in their path. It’s the loss of those small, personal, irreplaceable items that hurt the most.
The devastating floods were the result of the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Britain: 12 inches in 24 hours. It engulfed 900 properties. And it tragically claimed the life of popular local bobby PC Bill Barker who was swept away when a bridge where he was directing traffic collapsed into the swollen waters of the River Derwent.
The small market town of Cockermouth looks like a disaster area: like the aftermath of war. Raging torrents five-foot deep swept down the high street for best part of a day, unerringly eating away at the foundations and structure of these centuries’ old buildings. Some now face demolition. The town’s two bridges are closed off and Cockermouth (like Lockerbie) is now world famous for all the wrong reasons.
At the top of the flow, firemen had lashed ropes to the buildings and let them stream down with the current so that anyone making a break for it had a chance to haul themselves up as the waters rose. The River Cocker is England’s fastest flowing river and this has been a spate of water - the magnitude of which has never been recorded before.
Little shops, big stores, chemists and cake shops, tourist venues, places of work - places of abode, the floodwater has wreaked havoc in them all. The waters rose so fast people grabbed what they could and fled to higher ground. Others became marooned in flats above the shops, while sand bags on door thresholds were tossed aside like rag dolls. Some of these successful little enterprises had employed 12 people or more. Now those 12 jobs are gone, and it’s the run-up to Christmas.
Cockermouth Town Centre
In shops without upstairs access, people stood on the shop counters until the rescue teams could reach them - the growing weight of water caving-in the glass shop windows about them. Outside in the main street, trees, cars, and debris swept past in the floods. Frightening stuff, and although the town’s folk are putting on some stoic fronts, the sheer terror and experience of it all remains written across their faces.
Some shun the cameras and press, while others find it a catharsis to talk it all out with those who need to tell the story to the world. Some recall the waters rising inch by inch in grim detail; others try to make light of the situation with empty jokes.
Workington, Keswick, Ambleside, Barrow: there are similar stories in all the small towns across West Cumbria. All the lakes had swollen beyond capacity, flooding vulnerable properties on their shores. It’s the scale of the disaster which hits the ordinary observer most: so many people - so many lives have been blighted.
It is not all in the conurbations. Farms and rural villages have been hit. The excess waters - better described as contaminated sludge - has polluted the grasslands across a wide area. Farmers’ crops are now paddy fields; grasslands turned into mud flats; shale and boulders from the river beds lifted and strewn across fields like confetti.
Sludge and cobbles strewn across grasslands
The total cost of this devastation is yet to be calculated, and some are claiming the cost to tourism could reach the foot and mouth figures which wreaked havoc across Cumbria in 2001. But it is the effect on human lives that worries us the most.
While the politicians debate the long term finances and further flood defence plans, almost a thousand people are homeless and accommodated in temporary shelters. These ordinary folk need help now for the immediate basics: food, bedding and accommodation until they can get back to their homes - which experts are predicting will take nine months to dry out, before any work can even begin on them. How these people cope in the interim is our concern, as much as it theirs...
From: Jane Allen - accountant for www.cumbriafoundation.org
Dear Midge
We would be most grateful if you could promote the Flood Recovery Appeal - as we discussed donations may be made straight to the Community Foundation. To enable us to track the donations arising from your magazine, please ask your readers to quote reference TMV.
From: Lord Melvyn Bragg of Wigton
As you all know, Cumbria is rightly famous for its devotion to foxhunting. Parts of it are now badly damaged & there is much distress on the farms, in the villages & in the small towns.
I hope you will rally round & support this appeal.
Melvyn Bragg
From: Mrs Susan Simmons
The recent devastation caused by unprecedented flooding in Cumbria has been tragic for local businesses, farming and agriculture. Yet worse, it has taken one life. Highlighted by the irony that the season of goodwill is almost upon us, we must all dig deep and "give" what we can to help those affected by this traumatic storm; be it financial, physical or pastoral support to the community. Those “in need” must rest assured that their neighbours further afield give their pledge of help.
Mrs Sue Simmons MH, MFH of Holcombe Hunt in Lancashire
Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund
Details of immediate funding: grants are being given to individuals and families who have been affected by flooding. We are giving emergency help to people for things such as food, travel costs, basic furniture and so on. Priority is being given to elderly people, those with under 5s and people with disabilities or on low incomes.
Many people did not have contents insurance so have to replace everything. We are also helping community and voluntary groups such as Age Concern, Citizens Advice Bureaux and community centres who are helping people who have been flooded. There are also some community groups which themselves have lost equipment.
Important: all monies you donate go direct to the appeal
Please be sure to mark your donation TMV so that we can flag-up what hunting has done collectively for this human disaster
You can send a cheque made out to Cumbria Community Foundation to:
Cumbria Community Foundation Dovenby Hall Cockermouth CA13 0PN
- Please write on the back 'Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund'
- Please also complete and enclose the donation form, which you can download here
To pay by credit card please go to the Cumbria Community Foundation page on the Charities Aid Foundation website. Click on 'Make a donation'.
Important: Please note the following:
- In the 'Instructions to charity' box put in: Flood
- In the 'Promotional Code' box further down, enter TMV so that we can flag-up what hunting has done collectively for this human disaster
- The Charities Aid Foundation do take a small admin charge to cover processing costs