Millbrook Floods Help - Thank You!!

UPDATED 7pm Monday 3rd december, 2012

Many thanks to each & every person who kindly donated to the Millbrook Flood Help with monies raised going to Millbrook Village Hall Playgroup that is currently in a temporary home at the Scout Hut. A total of 19 people donated the sum of £190 via PayPal, minus the PayPal fees of 5.4% (£10.26) giving a total sum of £179.74. Although we spoke with PayPal directly again today, they will not remove or reduce their fees unless we are a registered charity which of course, we aren't. However, as soon as we found this out earlier in the week we also made the decision to donate our fees from any photos used in the media to make up for this. We are extremely grateful for your support!!

Final Total Donations £284.74

Thank you all & we hope to bring you photos of where the cash helped soon!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has sent mails of support & donations to those affected in the Millbrook flooding on Saturday night. From launching the PayPal Donation page last night you have raised more than £100 & we hope to raise a little more in the 6 days remaining. With your help we can contribute, even if only a little, toward the fund.

The PayPal Donations will run until 6pm Sunday 2nd December & we will issue a press release of the grand total raised at 7pm & throughout the week you will see updates via the Millbrook Flood Help Facebook Group.

After attending a drop-in session at Millbrook Scout Hut for Multi-Agency Flood Recovery this evening we bring you the following photos taken across the last 48 hours. This was from just one affected area don't forget & we hope that others across the South West are getting the full support required to enable a return back to some sort of normality as swift as possible.

This blog will return back to normality next week when we bring you a feature on one of the Palmerston Forts. Until then we thank you for your understanding, both our cameras took on water damage so we won't be doing photos for a few days anyway!

Please do not copy, use or distribute any of the photos without prior written permission via; info@hiddenplymouth.co.uk 

Deep water spanned the road near Antony House, Torpoint

This best portrays how hard the rainfall was

By this point our camera lens had suffered water damage

King Street, Millbrook

Fore Street, Millrbook

Diverting the water - Millpool Head, Millbrook

West Street, Millbrook

Firefighters from Torpoint Station survey the scene outside the Devon & Cornwall Inn

Inside the Devon & Cornwall Inn

The Morning After

Spar Shop - Millbrook

Quay Garage, Millbrook

Locals worked throughout the night & into the next morning

Sunday Lunch cancelled at the Devon & Cornwall Inn

The scene looking down King Street, Millbrook

Landslide in St Andrews Street, Millbrook

Landslide near Millbrook Surgery

Polbathic Garage under water

Tregantle to Crafthole Road Landslide

Millbrook Flooding -Sat 24th November, 2012

Okay this post should have been a photo reportage of our event at Maker Junction, Maker Heights, but yesterday saw a series of unfortunate events that culminated in hours of chaotic scenes but at the same time, calm & organised. Here's what happened from our perspective....

Firemen from Torpoint checking on residents in King Street, Millbrook with waters fast rising

 Early Saturday afternoon, we were in the midst of setting up for the event at Maker, when a glance at the weather & forecast throwing doubt as to the incoming conditions & concern for people's safety travelling home back to Plymouth with reduced ferry services. After conferring with Simon at Maker Junction, calls were made to the events guest speakers Cyberheritage, & local authors Laura Quigley & Barbara Marlow & by 3pm made the decision to cancel the event...when things go wrong we always say 'In hindsight...' - in this case, hindsight served us well but nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to witness.

 By 6pm heavy rains were battering South east Cornwall, & from 7:30 I headed back into Millbrook greeted by what I can describe as driving down a shallow river into the village littered with debris & rocks washed from the hedgerows. It was only when I reached the Heart & Hand pub that I realised that property was taking on water big time & reaching the market square was just blown away by the amount of flooding within such a short space of time.

 With sluice gates firmly shut the village of Millbrook took an onslaught of water cascading down Hounster Hill branching off down all streets into the village centre, manholes sprouting geyser like flooding the main West Street & engulfing homes & businesses. The Spar shop two feet deep in cold water,the Devon & Cornwall pub more, maybe three, four feet. Quay Garage & Millbrook Petrol Station were getting higher water levels by the minute fromSmall businesses & homes battered with the torrential onslaught with many working throughout the night mopping up the mess. What was great to see was how the community clubbed together to assist wherever they could. With emergency services overstretched & overwhelmed throughout Devon & Cornwall it was down to everyday people who took the situation in hand & tried to protect their's & neighbours property - who said community spirit isn't alive & well.

 Thankfully, to our knowledge, nobody was seriously hurt but people's possessions & livelihoods have been affected badly by this & after speaking with a friend of Hidden Plymouth, Tim Newcombe who has set up a Facebook group for affected Millbrook residents Millbrook Flood Help we have set up a PayPal Donation page to hopefully raise a few pounds for this. We hope you take the time to read this & please, feel free to leave comments & a little moral support.

Please head over to Millbrook Flood Help Facebook Group to see if you can help in any other way.

Many thanks - Hidden Plymouth.