Devastating UK Floods Split English Town
2009-11-24 8:56
A community cut in two. This is Workington, a small town in northwestern England.
Last week the Cumbria region bore the brunt of the heaviest downpours on record, described by environment authorities as a "1 in 1,000 year" flood.
The waters are receding, but the clean-up has barely begun. The closure of the town's last standing bridge, on the brink of collapse, has isolated northern residents.
[Anne McLoughlan, Resident]:
"There are no doctors facilities on this side of the river. They would have to come a long way around if we needed anyone in an emergency."
[Mark Hayton, Resident]:
"The difficulty is my mum and dad live over there on the north side of the road and I have to do effectively 200 miles just to go there."
The situation is no better for people living outside Workington - what used to be a couple-of-minutes' drive to the town centre has turned into a two-hour excursion.
[Resident]
"We can't even get a pint of milk in the village now."
For others, the immediate priority is salvaging what they can from their devastated homes.
Flood claims in Cumbria and southern Scotland are expected to reach 165 million dollars.
More than 1,300 properties in Cumbria alone have been badly damaged, with many roads and bridges destroyed as well.
But insurance officials say that despite the devastation the industry will have no difficulty absorbing the costs.
[Malcolm Tarling, Association of British Insurers]:
"It's a lot of money but it’s what insurers expect to have to pay at some stage during the year. We are not talking about a repeat of the 2007 floods when the bill was three billion pounds. This is very traumatic for people being affected but it’s what the insurance companies expect to deal with. This is why people have insurance and this is what we are here to deal with."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also pledged emergency funds for the repair work and is promising additional help.
But Cumbria may not have seen the last of the floods - with more rain storms forecast, the insurance companies can expect to be busy.
