North East flooding 6 months on
Back in December 2015 the North East was badly hit by flooding. Six months later we take a look at where residents are in the clear up process.
6 months after Storms Desmond and Eva devastated parts of the North East residents and business owners say they're still trying to get back on their feet. Dangerously high levels of water forced thousands of people out of their homes and local business to close their doors.
Corbridge was one of the places here in the North East worst hit by the floods. Nicola Hobrough lived there with her family, they were forced to move out after their home was submerged in 6 foot of water, she says she is eternally grateful to her neighbours and members of the local community who helped her and her family through a really tough time:
“The community were absolutely incredible; I’ve never felt such a sense of belonging. Some people I didn’t even know that well to be honest with you but they came and helped us to clear up, got involved and offered moral support. Knowing that there were so many people who genuinely cared really helped”
As residents continue to repair the damage and try to put their lives back together the Hobrough family are going to extreme measures to make sure their house doesn't flood again. In the next few weeks they’ll raise their house 2point 6 meters off ground level, effectively lifting them out of the flood zone all together.
Nicola is sure that lessons have been learnt since December and hopes that the community will be more prepared should anything like that happen again:
“We still have a really close network with all the other member of surrounding communities and areas that have been flooded we meet on a regular basis to try and improve things generally and to discuss that if anything was going to happen again we’d have a better idea of what’s going on.