Ironbridge finds itself marooned as Severn bursts
IN the rush to prepare for the birth of her second son, Jenny Mason-gunning did not factor in her printing business being several feet underwater. But with the 38-year-old due to give birth today that is the situation she finds herself in.
“It has been horrific and just shocking”, said Mrs Mason-gunning, whose family were evacuated on Tuesday as the River Severn burst its banks. She estimates the flood damage will stretch to thousands of pounds. “I’m just trying to stay calm,” she said.
They are among dozens of residents and businesses in the Ironbridge gorge to have been forced out in recent days.
Yesterday homes in the Wharfeage area of Ironbridge – a world heritage site that contains the world’s first iron bridge – were evacuated as temporary flood barriers were finally overwhelmed. At its peak the river reached a height of 6.8m (22ft) at Ironbridge, just shy of the 7.04m record set in 2000.
David Nolan, 63, was among those evacuated yesterday after police urged him and his wife to leave their three-storey Georgian home.
“The sheer force of the water is what has been so destructive,” he said.
The local pub, the Tontine Hotel, which overlooks the bridge, has taken in some of the evacuees and by the afternoon had run out of real ale.
In the nearby village of Dale End, Brooke Evans, 26, who opened a hair salon in December, has been flooded three times in a week. Like many businesses she cannot get insurance to pay for the damage.
“We knew it was close to a river, but never in a million years did I expect it to be like this,” she said.
With more rain forecast, the Environment Agency expects flooding along Britain’s longest river to persist at least until Sunday.