Section:OBS 2N PaGe:4 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 3/8/2019 18:58 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
4 04.08.19 News
Fears grow for dam
town with threat of
another downpour
Residents are allowed
home for 15 minutes to
save valuables and pets
as helicopters fl y over
stricken communityRAF pilots and emergency work-
ers were last night continuing their
round-the-clock efforts to shore up
a stricken dam before the area is hit
today by further thunderstorms.
A Chinook helicopter made
scores of forays over Whaley Bridge,
Derbyshire, to drop bags of ballast
into a section of Toddbrook dam
damaged by recent heavy downpours.Around 1,500 people have been
evacuated from the lower reaches of
the town after six weeks’ rainfall fell
in just 48 hours last week, causing
massive damage to the 180-year-old
dam at Toddbrook reservoir. Some
are in temporary accommodation in
a local school, while others are stay-
ing with friends and relatives.
Yesterday dozens of householders
were given 15-minute slots to drive
to their homes to retrieve important
possessions and pets left behind dur-
ing Thursday’s evacuation.
The government warned there was
still a threat to life in the town, with
heavy rain forecast for today and a
Met Offi ce yellow weather warning in
place for much of northern England
and the Midlands, including the area
around the reservoir.
Peter Drinkwater, 79, a retired lorrydriver, retrieved clothes and medica-
tion. “Until the evacuation I’d never
spent a night away from the house in
37 years,” he said.
His daughter, Cathryn Swann, 47,
an offi ce manager, said: “It feels really
eerie down there. The police had told
us to come straight back if we heard
any rumbling sounds, and of course
there was rumbling anyway from all
the aggregate being dropped onto the
dam. I panicked a couple of times, but
thankfully we’re OK.”
Another resident, Margot Graham,
said: “It’s like a ghost town. We were
advised by the police that we were
going in at our own risk. They told us
if we heard three blasts on a horn we
were to just run.
“It was a calculated risk, but we
moved quickly. Bricks and mortar can
be replaced , CDs and furniture canbe replaced, but if my grandmother’s
ring had disappeared in the water that
would have been it. It couldn’t have
been replaced.”
Trevor Peake, 73, a retired builder,
lives above the area at risk of fl ood-
ing but had been unable to get urgent
medication for his diabetes because
the local chemist was closed.
Ania Hill had been worried about‘It’s like a ghost town.
The police told us if
we heard three
blasts on a horn we
were to just run’
Margot Graham, resident
Nigel Bunyan
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