HOME AND DRY
Hugs all round as Whaley Bridge evacuation ends
WHALEY Bridge residents shared hugs and shed tears of relief after they were finally allowed back home yesterday.
Police allowed the remaining 1,500 residents, who were evacuated last Thursday, to return to the town after the damaged Toddbrook reservoir dam was declared safe.
Suzy Kelsall – whose home beside the river Goyt would have been in the floodwater’s path had the dam burst – and neighbour Kelly Baker greeted each other with a hug.
miss Kelsall said: ‘It’s just incredible the town is safe and we are incredibly grateful to the emergency services. It was so wonderful to drive through Whaley again.’
miss Kelsall, who runs a tour boat on the Peak Forest Canal – also on a potential floodpath – was on a trip with 40 sightseers when the evacuation happened. ‘Family and friends were ringing me telling me: “If you are on that boat, get off it now”,’ she said. Paul morin, a teacher, said: ‘I had to go back to rescue my dog Heidi, a lurcher cross, because she was in the house alone... and I had been visiting my daughter.’
retired electrician Graham Arnfield, 72, who was returning home with his wife Jane, 70, praised the emergency services and added: ‘We’ve never eaten out so much. We only took two plastic bags and one holdall with clothes when we were told to leave.’
mrs Arnfield said it had been ‘very stressful’, adding: ‘I’ve just come out of hospital after a brain haemorrhage. Living out of a plastic bag isn’t nice.’ Derbyshire Police deputy chief constable rachel Swann said the danger posed by the dam ‘could not be underestimated’ and said repairs to the dam are necessary – including, potentially, a complete reconstruction.
Locals displayed ‘thank you’ signs outside their homes for the 700 emergency services and armed forces personnel who worked to shore up the crumbling dam, which included pumping out 225million gallons of water.
Prime minister Boris Johnson, who visited the town on Friday, praised residents’ ‘spirit and patience’ during the stressful evacuation.