Residents mop up after the floods (From Warrington Guardian)

Residents mop up after the Warrington floods

11:30am Saturday 6th October 2012 in News

RESIDENTS are mopping up and counting the costs of the flooding which hit the town last week.

Jade Spero and her family had to spend two nights at relatives’ homes after their Densham Avenue home flooded on Tuesday.

Three inches of rain flooded the ground floor of their Longford home and once the water receded, it left a trail of destruction in its wake.

The 23-year-old said: “All our furniture is completely ruined. It’s ruined our cooker, our fridge, everything is broken and everything needs to be replaced.

“The house smells, the furniture is soaking and we have nothing to sit on.

“My mum had to go to my dad’s house, my brother had to go to his girlfriend’s and myself and the dog had to go with my nan.”

The Golden Gates Housing Trust tenants are now being offered help in getting their properties habitable again.

But the process is one they already know well after their home was previously hit by floods four years ago.

“We are flooded all the time but this is the worst it has been,” added Jade. “They gave us barriers and they built four tanks under the park nearby last time. Each time they say it won’t happen again but it does.”

A spokesman for Golden Gates Housing Trust said: “The floods affected around eight properties, with the four most affected having water around four to five inches high at some stages.

“The trust was first made aware of the potential flooding issue on Tuesday and reacted quickly, deploying its workers throughout the afternoon and evening to support Warrington Borough Council in delivering sand bags to try and prevent the flood water from entering people’s homes.

“The trust also provided support to those affected, working with its tenants to ensure that they either had accommodation with friends or family or arranging temporary hotel stays until they could go back to their property.”

A council spokesman said: “The tanks that were installed in the area worked when they were needed the most. They are designed to deal with the vast majority of predicted rainfall events however, due to the amount of rain that fell in such a short space of time they were tested to the absolute maximum. Without the tanks the flooding would have been considerably worse. “No flood defence system can eliminate all risk. This is why residents were supplied with extra resilience in the form of flood boards and where these were used they did give added protection to those properties.”