Last updated at 13:20, Thursday, 06 September 2012

A STRONG community spirit has helped a St Bees’ mother whose home was destroyed in the floods.

Emma Jane Taylor, of High House Road, says neighbours have offered to help to clean up and provide accommodation for her family after flood waters badly damaged her home.

The support has extended countywide as Jane’s 16-year-old daughter Katy, who has Down syndrome, has been given £1,000 from CFM’s Cash For Kids to help pay for her bedroom to be revamped. The family were also given free tickets to see the upcoming pantomime at the Sands Centre.

Emma said: “Katy was absolutely thrilled when Robbie Dee rang us. She is more excited about going to the pantomime at the Sands Centre than the money.

“The money was surprising. I was totally gob smacked. It’s been so nice that so many people have offered to help. They have offered us places to stay and have offered to help us clean up.”

She said: “The clean up is going to take a long time. The main problem is that so many people were affected and many worse than me, that everyone is hiring dehumidifiers and equipment to dry homes out.”

She says she wants to highlight the problem of the blocked drains which were unable to contain the deluge of water which flooded the street last Wednesday night.

A number of homes on the road were badly damaged by floodwater as it soaked into the houses.

She said: “We often have problems when it rains. I normally have to stand for two or three hours scooping leaves out of the drain. Last night the drains were full, there was no way the rain was going to drain away.”

Emma said: “Within half an hour the water came from the gulleys and sides of the roads to the whole roads, at which point I started knocking on neighbours’s doors telling them to put the flood boards up. It got to mid-calf level in the middle of the road. The water had reached the front door and gone into my house.”

She said: “Mum lives next door, and my three nieces were staying with her – I had to wake them up to. The water got in through her double glazed french windows.

“The block paving has completely lifted from our garden. The water is receding, we are just left with the damage inside and outside now. If it rains now the drains are full and there is no-where for the water to go.”

Emma added: “I’m hoping that by highlighting the problem of the drains, something will be done about them.”

Elsewhere in the village there was a small landslide at the Seacote caravan park and the Coast to Coast footbridge has collapsed.

Brian Murray was holidaying in the village with his wife, Christine. He said: “We took our dogs for a walk and saw that the whole footbridge had collapsed. The water must have risen about 20 foot for it to cause that much damage.”

A section of a sandstone wall at St Bees School’s Grindal House has partly collapsed due to the torrent of water.

Residents in Middleton, Coulderton and Nethertown also reported flooding.

First published at 11:04, Thursday, 06 September 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk