County Councillor Tim Stoddard, leader of Cumbria County Council will meet his Royal Highness Prince Charles later today when he pays Carlisle a special visit to see the devastation that the floods have had on the city.
His Royal Highness will be visiting flood-stricken Warwick Road, one of the worst affected areas of the city where he will meet one of the many families whose home and contents has been ruined by the floods. Prince Charles will also visit Corporation Road, which was home to Carlisle's Fire and Police Stations before the rain fell so heavily.
Tim Stoddard in speaking about the royal visit said:
"In talking to Prince Charles I'll be stressing the fantastic community and partnership working that emerged throughout the crisis. Many people have gone out of their way rallying round helping one another showing real commuity spirit. A wide range of county council staff have been working tirelessly around the clock during the flooding and now in the clean up alongside colleagues in the City Council, emergency services and the voluntary sector. They all deserve a big thank you for their efforts."
Many Cumbria Care staff worked additional hours to make sure that food and warmth was still provided in care homes across the county as well as helping with some evacuations. Services to the most vulnerable continued despite difficulties caused by the weather and communications failure.
Cumbria Contract Services (CCS) staff have been supporting the 12 hour food distribution centre set up at Norman Street School in Carlisle. Most of the people using this centre are local householders who are starting to tackle the aftermath of flooding in their homes. CCS staff are continuing to cook and deliver hot meals to residents in the worst effected areas in the City. More staff came into work to make sure that meals on wheels continued to be served to some of the most vulnerable people affected by the flooding. Staff not only delivered a hot meal but provided welfare support to those clients.
With so much information and advice from support services, insurance companies and other businesses available on websites, the loss of communications can present a real problem. Cumbria County Council Library Service has therefore made special arrangements to give flood-affected households and businesses access to the internet and fax machines free of charge.
Hundreds of people effected by the flooding have needed overnight accommodation at the centres. During that time the county council's education welfare staff were answering hundreds of phonecalls that came into the centres from worried relatives of the people worst effected by the floods. Staff were making sure that people at the centres had the medication they needed as well as getting support from the voluntary organisations to people who need it. One of the education welfare officers acted as a translater to one of the non-english speaking families at the centre getting them the help they needed as well as keeping them informed of what was happening.
The county council’s highways service was out working flat out since the start of the storms on Friday. Over 150 people were actively involved in teams throughout Cumbria clearing fallen trees, resolving street lighting problems, releasing flood water and repairing damage to roads and bridges.
Fire Fighters from Carlisle were directly involved in the rescue operations on Saturday. Rescue dingies were provided by Merseyside and Cheshire Fire Brigades and co-ordinated with the coast guard. High pressure pump tenders were sent to Carlisle from the national depot in Gloucester and were used to pump away the flood water, particularly in order to bring back into use the major electrical sub station at Willowholme.