People of Shrewsbury batten down the hatches with river level rising and flood water threatening

Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury residents, businesspeople and charities have been responding as best they can to surging river levels as the Severn continued to rise on Wednesday.

Transcript

00:00 My name's Ollie and I'm the landlord of the Slope Inn and I've been the landlord of the Slope Inn since 2005.

00:06 So you've seen a few floods?

00:08 Yes, since 2005 I think we've flooded 50 plus times.

00:12 But major floods, there's only been three or four which have physically come across the road,

00:18 the main road in Shrewsbury, Smithfield Road by us, and actually come into the pub.

00:22 It's happened three or four times.

00:24 Forecasted 499, which as we're crouching here, would be about here.

00:28 So there's a lot of water, it will be across Smithfield Road, into the pub and surrounding buildings as well.

00:36 With all the rain we had yesterday in Shropshire and Wales, it could potentially be a record.

00:41 A record would be about there, the record's 5.25 metres at the Welsh Bridge in Shrewsbury back in 2000.

00:48 And yeah, that's potentially the record.

00:51 And that's a lot of water coming through the town and through the county.

00:55 If it is worst case scenario, doomsday and we do have a record flood Friday night or Saturday,

01:00 we'll obviously be shut and we'll miss the big game on Sunday, the Shrewsbury Wrexham FA Cup game.

01:06 The pub has developed in the 18 years that we've been open and we've relocated our cell and we've expanded.

01:12 So from our point of view, even if we had a record flood Friday or Saturday,

01:18 we can raise up all our equipment, all our stock, everything, and we won't physically have any damage.

01:24 But yeah, the cleanup is horrendous. The river, when it drops back down below peak levels,

01:30 it leaves an inch of sludge and it just takes us two, three days to clean it up. It's not very nice.

01:36 My name's Karen Williams and I'm the project lead of Foodbank Plus here at the Barnabas Centre.

01:40 And you're right next to the river.

01:42 Yes, we are. And as you can see, it's rapidly rising.

01:46 And so we've decided to close the food bank because it's unsafe for clients to be here on site.

01:51 Yesterday, we made that decision to enact our flood plan.

01:55 We removed all the food from the sheds where we store it.

01:58 And it's now dry and safe, ready for when we can reopen.

02:02 And when do you think you'll be able to reopen?

02:05 As soon as we can? I don't know. It depends on when the river actually peaks and how quickly it drops.

02:11 But as soon as it's safe to do so, we will be reopening.

02:14 All that information is on our website, www.bcp.onl, and on our Facebook page as well.

02:21 Is that a pump that's underneath your flat?

02:24 Yes, that is my kitchen and my living room window right there. So it's in between the two.

02:32 Are you worried about what's going to happen later?

02:36 I am a little bit. However, because of what we've got in place now,

02:41 my mind is a lot more at ease than it could have been.

02:44 But obviously, after everything that's happened in 2022, it does still cross my mind that it could be a repeat.

02:50 How easy is it to sleep with that thing pumping out of you?

02:53 I haven't been to sleep yet. I'm leaving here today to go to a hotel because I can't bear it anymore.

02:59 Tom, you have got together as a group of residents to pay for the pumps.

03:05 About two years ago, we created a right to manage group.

03:11 All the leaseholders have got together and we now manage the property.

03:16 About two years ago, each ground floor resident was offered a grant from the local authority.

03:24 I think it was about £5,000. Obviously, a single household can't do much for £5,000.

03:32 So, we managed to get everyone to come together, pull the £5,000.

03:36 We now have £70,000 available at the front, for which we managed to use all the pumps in the basement.

03:43 So, we now have six heavy-duty pumps in the basement to pump the water out.

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