The Cockermouth Floods

Following the devastating floods in our neighbouring province of Cumberland and Westmorland, the Freemasons of Northumberland have reacted quickly to donate £5000.00 to relieve local residents in the worst affected areas of Cockermouth and Workington.  It is understood that the first phase of grants will concentrate on the elderly, disabled and families with children aged under five.

A personal note from Nick Wilson, Past Master of Viking Lodge No. 7934 on 30th November 2009:

It is good to hear about the Province’s donation - I know it will be appreciated. Personally the floods have had little impact on us, although my father lives in the middle of Cockermouth and was evacuated from his flat because of the risk of flooding and the fact that the power was cut off - we managed to get him to our house and he has just gone back to his flat this morning. The only other impact on us directly has been the difficulties with regard to travelling around the area - but this is nothing when you see the devastation in the town.

When the floods first happened (on the Thursday, I was away from home and travelled home early on the Friday - however the area was almost completely cut off and I had to travel an extra 45 miles (via Carlisle) in order to get home.  The scenes shown on the TV were very real and when I went into the town later that day to my Dad's flat I saw the floods for myself - it was an eerie sight, with floods up to the tops of the windows of shops and large rescue boats, holding 6/8 rescuers, travelling up and down the main street, as well as several rescue helicopters winching people from their houses.

Main Street in Cockermouth and surrounding affected roads are still not accessible to traffic and the public but are slowly being cleared up.  The impact of the floods has meant that peoples possessions have mostly been completely written off, cars have been washed away, shop fronts have disappeared, white goods (washing machines, etc) can be found on the banks of the river up to a couple of miles downstream and other possessions much further away.  The lodge building in Cockermouth is on Challoner Street, the ground floor has been completed ruined and unfortunately I understand it isn't insured against floods.  A friend of mine, who is currently a fellow-craft in a local lodge, lives next door to the building on Challoner Street and his house and business has been completely wrecked, on the day of the floods his young son was across the road at a friends house and because it all happened so quickly was unable to get back to his house.  They did not see each other again until they were separately rescued the next day!  On Saturday a group of us went down there and spent some time helping to clear out his, other peoples and the lodges possessions into skips so that the drying out process can begin - which will obviously take some time!

Apart from the ones in Workington, many bridges in Cockermouth and the surrounding area have been washed away or are still closed because they have been damaged.  This means that journey's are much longer than normal.  Whereas normally the biggest traffic queues might involve a dozen vehicles, at the moment some queues in the rush hour can be 5 miles or more long to get over the only bridge that crosses the River Derwent - which can increase journey times by a hour or more. Cockermouth and Workington are both split in two - Workington is the most badly affected because of the distance people have to go (by road) to get to the other side (currently about 15 miles), but many people in Cockermouth also have to travel several miles to get to the other side of the river and the shops as the main road bridge has been shut and the footbridge washed away.

The response of local people has been amazing though – people are doing all they can to help each other and some of the businesses have already opened up temporary shops in alternative locations.