One year on: The floods of Worcester

8:00am Saturday 19th July 2008

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FEW could forget the image children being carried out of their Worcester school by firefighters, policemen and staff as the flood waters rose around them.

In total 550 pupils of the Cherry Orchard Primary School in Timberdine Close had to be rescued.

Carpets, furniture and equipment all had to be ripped out and replaced with the help of parents and teachers during the summer holidays.

Headteacher Jeremy Harwood said: “Memories are mixed about the flood and we had to write off our summer holidays to get the school back in order.

"We never want this to happen again as it was a very difficult time for us here.”

Mr Harwood said nearby drainage needed to be replaced by Severn Trent - something planned for 2013.

“The issue we have is with the amount of water coming from Timberdine Avenue and Timberdine Close,” he said.

“We are always very wary now when it does rain hard, and it did come close to flooding again in May and we had to put some sandbags out.”

The school now keeps a store of temporary barriers close-at-hand.

Businesses across the city were also hit hard by the floodwaters, including several in Bromyard Road, when surging waters spilled out of Laughern Brook.

Thousands of pounds of damage was caused, leaving some firms fearing for their future.

Chris Davis, manager of Worcester Midlands Cold Stores, Bromyard Road, said: “We thought we were going to have to lay off some of our staff because we just didn’t know how we would recover.

“But we got there and we are now back up and running as we were.

“The floods just completely wiped out our stores and we lost a lot of stock. It took us a good month to get cleaned up and then over the past year we have been putting things back together.

“It’s quite unbelievable looking back now, but we just pray that we never see that again.”

Worcester Racecourse and Worcestershire County Cricket Club also suffered severely. They had to cancel race meets and matches, and then spent months counting the cost of the clean-up operation.

Mark Newton, chief executive at the cricket club, said: “Last summer’s floods cost us £1.164 million but a year on we have managed to recover about £900,000 of that and the playing area is now looking fantastic and the wicket is in great shape as well.

"Our groundsman has performed a minor miracle.”

Mr Newton said the future looked bright for the cricket club, after it installed extra drainage and is now planning to raise the ground floors of all its buildings.

Jenny Cheshire, spokesman at the racecourse, said the turf was now looking as good as it did before last summer’s floods, but said it had been a hard year.

“We expect to be hit in the winter and we cope with that,” she said.

“But the summer flooding was totally different. It really devastated us, not only in terms of having to cancel race meets, but the ground took a lot to recover.”

Our coverage continues in print and online on Monday and Tuesday.

• In pictures - June 2007 floods
• In pictures - July 2007 floods