Re: the flooding north of England

[MrsSocks]

Living in a small village that is now essentially an island having been cut off by water, I just want to say what amazing community spirit and support I have witnessed in the last few hours! People coming together and help eachother out in the most extreme of ways, businesses opening to offer overnight shelters, emergency services working tirelessly, and strangers offering to go above and beyond to help those in need. Thank goodness we can still have some faith in humanity

The blow has fallen. All the floors and floor coverings have got to go. All the walls have to be hacked off up to a metre high. All the doors and cupboard doors are to go. The fireplace has to go and the kitchen. Downstairs loo and shower room, will have to go.
We have to move out.
The estimates are for around 9/10 months. We have no idea wher we will live as yet. The surveyor said around £100,00O to fix it. Feel gutted.
The whole of the down stairs will have to be redecorated.

Oh himh. I feel so sad for you. I've just got back off holiday and have seen your post.

Will you get this £100,000 from insurance , from the government? Please don't say you have to fund it yourself.

Also, steps have to be taken to ensure this doesn't happen again. Gawd I don't mean to sound like a politician. I hope things are happening right now to ensure your houses are safe because as we all know there are going to be other storms and they are building fortifications, dredging the rivers whatever needs to be done.

I'm so sorry I can't offer any more . I just wanted you to know that you are not forgotten.

Hope you are feeling better physically although mental stress has such a profound effect on us anyway.

Would you and your DH be able to get a little sunshine break when you get your settled in your new accommodation.

How are you doing now?

Well I am doing alright. Our insurance company is pants along with a few other insurance companies in the village. They don't keep in touch and ring up and say that workmen are coming to hack off the plaster. BUT the furniture and contents haven't been packed up and put in store. Etc etc. Arse / elbow situation constantly.
I think the situation is worse than the flood. I don't think I want to live in a mobile home because they say it will take 8/9 months. The way they have carried on means I don't trust them. We could be out for a year or more.
My Dh constantly emails them and gets no replies. The village is angry and in mourning.
We are booked to go away next Month. Can't wait to feel the sun on my back but I so want the house to start being renovated.
We are going to have a key safe on the front door. I Have no faith.

So pleased you are getting a break. Are you going anywhere nice? Lol! ( my aunts saying)

It's awful to leave unfinished business but at least you can recharge your batteries.

I'm off tomorrow and I'm leaving stuff I wanted to get done :-( ill have forgotten about it by Saturday ;-)

Been a long time since we had an update.

Did you get the help you so desperately needed.
Have the repairs to the roads been made
Did the politicians keep their promises
Are you homes repaired or nearly repaired

I sincerely hope your all on the mend.

Mmmm well we are in temporary accommodation and it looks as though it it is the case for the foreseeable future. Everyone around me in the same boat are pretty weary.
We are being passed from Pillar to post by the insurers. . It is very frustrating. Some things are moving forward. We have to pay for Resiliance measures ourselves so those are starting next week. We are having underfloor pumps put in and then the outside of the house is going to be excavated to the foundations. A waterproof membrane is going in, and on the other side below the floor boards, the bricks need repointing and painting with waterproof material. Plus flood doors and flood barriers over the air bricks.

It is going to make a phenomenal mess, as all the fencing that section off the garden will have to come down. They will not survive. We have the grant but £5000 won't go far. You also don't get the grant until the work is done. I don't know how people without any money manage. It will cost us around £20,000 by the time the fences are all rebuilt as there are 4, 6 foot gates that were all bespoke.

The inside of the house is totally wrecked. The first lot of strippers did things they shouldn't have. I went round the house with surveyor number two. He had the schedule and kept saying to me , pointing at his clipboard, ' I don't know why they did/ didn't do that as it is written in plain English. I thought ' why are you telling me' ? It wasn't my job to supervise them.
The first lot of strippers, stripped off the old lime plaster to a metre. Apparently this wasn't necessary. Now all the plaster on the walls to ceiling height has to come off as you can't marry old plaster with new!!!!
So we are fed up. Arse and elbow situation.
I think we will be living in temporary accommodation for a year.

Just see yo ur update himh.

I could weep for you. Just awful news.
We got back from the lakes last night after three days there. A chap from glenridding at the time of the disaster said don't send money, come and visit inthe summer, so we did.

We were pleased that roads were renewed and passable around Keswick, Ambleside , Penrith and even in glenridding they are making progress.

I hope the god spell of weather around Appleby fair time gave you a boost although we weren't so lucky this time.

It did all look stunning though. So very, very beautiful, lush and green.

I'm shocked you have to fund your repairs first and then claim.
Chap in the George at Penrith who is from glenridding said they got flooded three to four times a year.

I hope your lovely home is quickly restored and it never happens again because this time the flood defences are effective.
The Cumbrian people are so lovely.

Oh well, our house is still wrecked and nothing much has been done to it. We are crawling forward slightly.
A builder has been appointed, but when we went around with the loss adjusters surveyor last month, we could see that it was going to be a patch up job. We had a dispute over painting the ceilings. Who would decorate a room without painting the ceilings FFS?

The strippers, urinated and worse all over my spotless toilets. They were supposed to be wrapped in bubble wrap and stored. They are disgusting and black with lumps of plaster inside the bowls and stored on top of one another. When I said to the surveyor ' look ! look! He just shrugged his shoulders and said they can be cleaned up. Yet he told the builder that his men had to bring their own toilets.
The builder found suspect asbestos now and the appointed firm has just written to us for an appointment to enter the house. Why when the Insurers have put a key safe on?
My DH and I are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
However, we have had moments recently when we have forgotten flooding.