Northumberland town fears repeat of floods

Sep 6 2009 by Mike Kelly, Sunday Sun

THE weather forecast for today in Morpeth is heavy rain. Residents in the Northumberland town have more reason than most to cast a concerned eye at the forbidding skies and hope the weather people have got it wrong.

For people elsewhere such rain would mean being stuck at home. For Morpeth, if the rain does not relent in time, it could mean residents fleeing for their lives.

This time last year that is exactly what happened and as one local told reporters: “I think it’s by good luck rather than good management that lives weren’t lost.”

It was at 3am on Saturday, September 6, that there was a hint of what was to come when the Environment Agency issued a Floodwatch for the Wansbeck catchment area, notifying people of rising water levels and advising them to keep an eye on the EA alerts. The heavy rain continued - eventually six inches of rain was to fall from September 5 to 6, normally the monthly average.

At 11.26am the agency issued a severe flood warning telling people in High Stanners to leave their homes. Mitford Road on the north side of the River Wansbeck was one of the first to start to flood. There was also water coming into the first houses at the end of Oldgate Bridge and residents were preparing to evacuate houses in the Chandlers Gardens area.

The emergency services swung into action, urging people to leave their homes, using boats to take the stricken to safety. Some were just carried down the street, including Ethel Collins. The sight of Ethel, then 94, being lifted down the street from her home in flooded Wellwood Gardens was one of the most striking images of the disaster.

She said: “I had no time to get anything but I couldn’t do anything anyway. They had to carry me out.”

Her home was devastated and a few boxes of crockery and glassware and one chair were all that could be salvaged. The water and the mud it left after it receded destroyed everything.

Her home has now been completely renovated and she moved back in four months ago.

“It’s all been done but there’s still jobs for me to do. I can’t get used to the kitchen. It’s hard for me but I just have to get on with it.”

And the rest of Morpeth has been getting on with it too. The overall cost of work to put right flood damage is estimated at around £50 million.

Around 1000 homes and businesses were flooded with roads and four electricity substations were also affected.

The terrifying thought is, while there has been much talk of improving flood defences, the work will not be completed until 2013. In other words, it could happen again.

Phil Welton was site controller for the EA on the day. Born in nearby Cramlington, he’d just returned to the region two months before the disaster struck.

“My friends said I brought the bad weather with me,” he said.

“I was initially deployed to Bardon Mill. When the incident room realised Morpeth was getting quite severe they sent me there. I arrived at about 1pm and by then High Stanners was already flooded. There was a lot of activity by the emergency services.

“The speed at which the water level rose was of great concern. There was a real risk to life. I’ve worked for the Environment Agency for 10 years and it was the most dramatic flood I have been involved in. It was scary.”