23/11/2009

Residents Return To Flooded Cockermouth

Around 900 residents and business owners have returned to Cockermouth, one of the town's most badly affected by the recent flooding.

All the properties in the town are being checked by engineers before people can re-enter their homes and businesses.

The chaos caused by last week's flooding in Cumbria has continued today, with the closure of businesses and schools and widespread travel disruption caused by collapsed and damaged bridges.

An urgent safety review of around 1,800 bridges in the region is continuing. Six bridges have already collapsed and there are fears that the Calva bridge in Workington could be on the verge of being swept away.

Sixteen bridges and at least 25 roads are still closed in Cumbria, with commuters facing lengthy detours for their journeys.

Thirteen primary schools and five secondary schools were closed today and many homes and businesses remain cut off by the floods, while around 60 people are still staying in reception centres and hundreds more have been forced to stay with friends and relatives.

Meanwhile, there are flood warnings in place across the rest of the country as well, with six in place in Scotland, ten in north-west England, two in the Midlands and four in Wales.

A Met Office warning of localised flooding has also been issued for the western counties of Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, a search is continuing in Powys in Wales, for a 21-year-old woman who was swept along the River Usk in Brecon at the weekend.

(KMcA/GK)

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