Cumbria learns flood lessons

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Important lessons can be learned from the huge downpour that devastated Cumbria six months ago and left property owners reliant on home insurance policies to repair their lives, a council has claimed.

Speaking in a review of progress made six months after the disaster, a Cumbria County Council report said the region's flooding plan should be 'revisited' and updated to take account of the possibility of even more devastating events.

The existing strategy, drawn up in 2005, was rendered ineffective by the sheer volume of rain, more than 1ft, that fell in 24 hours in November.

Cockermouth, a town at the epicentre of the chaos, saw its main street submerged under 8ft of water by the resulting floods.

Nearby Workington also suffered heavily through the collapse of the Northside and Calva bridges, cutting the town off.

In all, more than 1,300 homes were affected by the flooding.

Cumbria County Council's report said: 'Emergency plans had been well tested, however, the scale of the flooding was beyond what was predicted. Emergency plans now need to be revisited to take account of climate change and severity of the flooding.'

Copyright © Press Association 2010

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