Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund

[Jonathon Rushton]

I know this is slightly off topic but anyone who has visited the Lake District when on holiday, through the MSCC when on the Windermere Tour or even with the VSCC on the Northern Trial, you should be able to identify with the parts of Cumbria that have been hardest hit through the flooding of the past five/six days.

The floods that hit the Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth on Wednesday evening, when the rivers Derwent and Cocker burst their banks, are beginning to recede and in doing so the scale of the damage is becoming apparent.

Cumbria’s Chief Constable has already issued the warning that it could take “years” to repair the damage to Cockermouth that the two rivers has managed to cause in only a few days. Residents and business owners are beginning to return to their properties after five days which has seen flood waters invade a large part of the town. Most people will already have seen pictures and news casts of the torrential flood water which has so decimated the Main Street as flood waters 8ft or more, travelling at 20 mph, swept all manner of debris before it.

Those residents ‘toughing it out’ in the flood affected areas have been without electricity since Wednesday evening and people are only allowed to return to their properties once structural engineers have performed a house to house inspection and considered each building safe. This is no easy task, many of the older properties in and around the market place have had their foundations undermined and are at risk of collapse.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, in his speech to the Commons, said there would be a ministerial meeting to discuss what more could be done to help the victims of the "utterly devastating" event. As part of the drive to help the Cockermouth residents get back on their feet a flood recovery fund has been set up to help those facing financial hardship and act as an aid to the voluntary and community organisations who are at the forefront of the relief/clear up effort (it is important to note that the fund is targeted to help the vulnerable and not those businesses and individuals who have the added protection of buildings/contents insurance).

You can reach the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund by going to http://www.cafonline.org/apps/news/arti ... Foundation

You can read more about the fund by going to http://www.cumbriafoundation.org/news_e ... 201109.pdf

I have to declare a certain amount of self interest as Cockermouth was my home town for over twenty years. My parents, my brother and his family still live in the town but were lucky enough to miss the worst of the flood. My uncle was not so lucky, his riverside home between the river Derwent and Cockermouth Main Street being badly affected by the flood waters.

Anyone who has visited the Lake District in the past and has walked amongst the fells of Buttermere and Borrowdale will possibly appreciate the scale of the disaster as the record breaking rain waters from these valleys’ feed into both rivers and have caused Crummock Water to join with Buttermere Lake and Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake have joined for the first time in living memory.

The emergency services (Police, Fire Service, RNLI, Army) have been working solidly to tackle the flood damage. However, once the flood waters have subsided the long and difficult task of re-building the town and its community will begin. The scale of the task cannot be underestimated.


Thank you for reading. Any support that you can give the Recovery Fund at this time or in the future will be greatly appreciated.


Jonathon

[Andy Garlick]

Jonathon
I am relieved that your folks are OK, but my sympathies to your uncle.
I too have many happy memories of the area and could not even do a check of my friends until the phone lines were repaired.
I will certainly donate to one of the funds.
Andy

PS I was planning to kayak the Greta through Keswick next February, but I expect most of the river morphology will have changed quite as a result of the incredible water levels