THE CLEAN up operation has begun for flood-hit residents in Diglis after a “nightmare” week which saw their homes swamped with water.
Teams from Severn Trent Water, the Environment Agency and Worcester City Council began to arrive in Diglis Avenue last week as work began to clean up the mess left by the floods.
Many homeowners had up to eight inches of water in their properties after the River Severn rose to record levels in the city on February 12.
But for Diane Monk, who has experienced three floods since moving to the area in 2000, the situation has been made worse after sewage came up through the drains.
“It has been a nightmare and I have hardly slept,” she said. “It is bad enough being flooded but this is not fair to have this on top of everything else. The smell has been disgusting.”
David Sutton, head of the cleaner and greener department of Worcester City Council, said they were working closely with Severn Trent Water to sort out the sewage problem.
“It’s a very distressing thing to have sewage floating around in your house,” he said. “Unfortunately the river has put five feet of water on top of drains, which means they were never really going to work or go anywhere.
“Our focus there is to work with Severn Trent to find out what individual house holders need and deliver the most appropriate assistance for them.”
However, Chris Davis, of Diglis Avenue, said the council had not acted quickly enough to offer support to flood hit victim as he believed too much focus had been put on the Hylton Road area.
“There are historical records of where floods take place so all of them should get equal priority and action should be taken when they know they are going to flood,” he said.
“But we have not had enough help up front and they are only now shaking into action because they are starting see film crews arriving and people are complaining on TV.
“It is not good enough. They can’t cure all of the problem, but Instead of dilly-dally around after the event they could been down here straight away offering to clear it up.”
Clive Lister added he did not know how many more floods he could take after being hit six times since he moved to Diglis Avenue 20 years ago.
“When the floors were raised I was told we were statistically within four floods in a hundred years, but I have had three so far – 2000, 2007 and 2014 – so I have got one more to go in the next 90 years,” he added.
“You have to put up with it, but there times when I want to leave and I have had enough.”
