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346 – Flooding in Cumbria

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23 November 2009

MY SINCERE sympathies to all those families and businesses in Cumbria affected by the flooding.

According to the BBC news this morning there are 16 bridges out of action and some 25 roads are closed. It is going to make getting to work an heroic effort in itself – the land is criss-crossed by water, and bridges are the natural way over. Some people were even talking of a 90 mile commute each way, such is the impact of bridge closures.

We have family up in Cumbria. My wife comes from there and some of her sisters and brothers are still up there, north of Carlisle. Fortunately they have not been affected – it’s more to the west of this county, both equally inspiring and daunting, that the flooding has been worst.

Those in trouble, though, have also been receiving some assistance from the AA SORT team (Special Operations Response Team).

The SORT team uses specially adapted Land Rovers which can access areas inaccessible to most vehicles. Darron Burness, manager of the Special Operations Response Team sent this report: “Getting around Cumbria is now a challenge due to the understandable closure of bridges for good safety reasons. We are now deploying some patrols to Workington to help recover some of the hundreds of stranded cars.

“We are also getting reports of serious flooding in Wales so some special SORT vehicles will be deployed there.

“Yesterday the main street in Cockermouth looked like a ‘war zone’ – cars in shops, windows broken, street surface lifted. The number of abandoned and damaged vehicles across Cumbria is significant and this will take some time to clear. We are working 24 hours a day to help out.”

One can only wish them good luck – along with all the other rescue teams up there trying to get to grips with the terrible damage.

AA sends in specially adapted Land Rovers

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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