Clear-up begins as floods subside

A major clear-up operation was beginning across Shropshire today after flood waters subsided to reveal a trail of destruction in their wake.

Ripped up sections of road and damaged and abandoned vehicles were left behind after the waters began to subside in some parts of the county.

One victim of the deluge was thought to be a historic church on the Shropshire/Powys border which may have been structurally affected.

Officials are concerned about the condition of the church of St Peter, in Melverley, after river water as high as the flood mark in 1998 engulfed the building.

The vicar, the Reverend Rosie Bowers, had been due to conduct a service in the grade I listed building at 9am on Sunday but was unable to get there through the rising flood water.

Alerted

She said: "I couldn't get to the church but I've been told the water had almost reached the high point it did in 2000 and certainly as high as it was in 1998."

Clearing up operations were already under way in the border area near Oswestry yesterday. Residents in the Melverley and Maesbrook areas, close to where the Severn and Vyrnwy rivers meet, had battened down the hatches in readiness for what is, mostly, an annual event.

Flood warnings from the Environment Agency had alerted most to the rising tide of water that reached its peak on Sunday.

Residents were forced to watch as their gardens and fields were swamped, although few houses in the area are so low-lying that water gets into them.

The speed at which the water rose this time did catch some out. At least a dozen sheep up to their necks in water had to be rescued in the bucket of a huge tractor by agricultural contractor Raymond Morris and Shropshire firefighters.

Rescue

Mr Morris, from Maesbrook, who also farms, was called upon many times to use his tractor to rescue people and animals but yesterday he was concentrating on clearing debris from his own yard and digging a channel to drain his sheep field that had become a lake.

Mr Morris said his sheep had been safe and dry in their building but his pigs had fared less well — safe inside, but paddling as flood water rose over their trotters.

"Most people around here know what to expect but the flood does catch out some. I was called out on Sunday to rescue a man from Wrexham whose sat nav was sending him home from Criggion via Melverley.

"He drove into the flood water and his engine blew up.

"I got him and his computers and papers into the tractor bucket and took him to the Black Horse at Maesbrook where his son picked him up.

"Another chap in a security van got swept along in the flood water and his vehicle is still stuck in the hedge up the road," said Mr Morris.

One of his other good deeds on Sunday was to take a Little Hendre resident, due to have a spinal operation at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital the following day, through the floods to dry land so he wouldn't miss his appointment with the surgeon. Yesterday, he was collecting the patient's wife from her home that was still cut off, so she could visit her husband.

"I understand he's doing very well," he said.

Among residents who also took the emergency in their stride was Susan McGrath, of Hendre Cottage, near Melverley.

Warnings

In yesterday's brilliant sunshine, she was tidying up her garden that had been partly flattened in the floods.

"We've lived here for eight years and seen floods most years but it's never been in the house. We just watch for the warnings, get plenty of food and drink in and sit it out," she said.

Flood waters began falling around the Welsh Bridge area of Shrewsbury yesterday with warnings no longer in force after the River Severn through the town peaked at more than 14ft on Monday evening.

The Environment Agency is, however, reminding residents to remain vigilant with a number of roads in the town still affected by the high water, as well as some roads and footpaths in Ironbridge and Bridgnorth.

Roger Hotchkiss, landlord of the Brewery Inn, in Coalport, said the river level peaked yesterday but was now about 14ins down overnight.

"It wasn't the worst flood I've seen in the 31 years I've been here but it was certainly the fastest rising. We had to sit her and watch it rise inch by inch, hour by hour. It was a real phenomenon."