Emergency and volunteer services praised in Ironbridge

The Tontine Hotel is serving as a base for the emergency services as well as the Environment Agency, though the West Midlands Ambulance Service also drafted in a sophisticated remote support unit to coordinate the response.

Thomas Dunn, who lives in Ironbridge spent the morning helping out at the Tontine ensuring they were fed and watered.

"The response from all the emergency services and Environment Agency has been phenomenal," he said.

"They were here last week after Storm Dennis then they went further south down the river to other areas affected. Now they are back again. It is the same faces, they are doing a tremendous job and must be working such long hours."

He said Telford and Wrekin Councillors had also been on scene.

"However we haven't seen anything of our local MPs or national politicians," he said.

Adrian Chidlow and his 12-year-old son Jack, from Lightmoor, went to look at the Severn after Jack's William Brookes school closed.

Jack said: "We were in the gorge and heard a rumbling noise, I thought it was a helicopter. But it was the flood defences moving. They moved right back against the buildings."

Mr Chidlow was an engineer who worked on the flood defences in Shrewsbury.

"The flood defences in Shrewsbury are constructed differently and are much stronger. Because the gorge is a world heritage site they can't do that here," he said.

"But I would like to see them look at ways that they could make them stronger. They could bury the foundations for the barriers in the ground so that when needed additions could be added, similar to Shrewsbury."

Samantha Cox and Layla Jackson watched the river below from the deck outside the Ironbridge Fish and Chip Shop, where they both work.

"It's so scary to see how dangerous it could be," said Miss Jackson, who lives in nearby Coalport.

"It's the worst I've ever seen it," said Miss Cox, who manages the shop. "You just want everyone to be safe.

"Materials can be replaced but people have worked so hard for what they've got here."

They pointed out a holiday let across the river, saying that the owner had only just finished renovating. The building was half-submerged by the river.

Two walkers, Adrian and Carol Shaw, took their dogs into the gorge to observe before heading back to higher ground.

The couple are now of Madeley but have always lived in the area. Mrs Shaw, 55, said she had never seen the river as high.

They said there was a "quiet, eerie atmosphere" in the gorge after the major incident was declared.

"Those defences are more permanent and