THE EVENING of 21st November is one that many in Greater Manchester will want to forget about. A month of rain fell in the course of an evening and a great deal of areas around Manchester were extremely affected by the Tameside flooding.
Many people found their selves in danger and some were rescued by fire crew or other heroic civilians.Traffic was stalled and many people got stuck in places far away from their homes. Moreover, houses and properties were badly damaged during this sudden outburst of rain.
An area where the flood took a huge toll was Shaw, Oldham.The Rushfort Primary School was in the centre of the disaster.
The building was almost deluged under water and It was a hard time for the school management The help of staff and parents was needed in order to keep the water away.
Fortunately, the school did not even have to close due to the immediate and effective actions taken to keep the water out. Everyone was prepared for a situation like that as numerous floods have hit the area over the years.
Jaquie Ireland, the business manager of the school, stated that “We haven’t have to close on this occassion. because the head teacher sent out a message to ask staff and parents to come and help at school,so we managed to sandbag around the school and brush the water away so as to keep it from coming in school. We have been flooded in the past you where its come into school so with the support of parents and staff we managed to open the drains and keep the water from coming actually into school”.
Giving more details about the incident and how people in Rushford Primary School reacted during the Tameside flooding, Mrs Ireland added:
” The water didn’t actually start to flood around school till about 5pm. That’s when it started to rise and it was about 2 to 3 foot around the school. Once we knew it was coming that’s when the head teacher sent a message out for staff and local parents who could come and help. It was quite a military operation. I was site manager and its was very well organised. I could direct the parents and helpers in exactly what we needed to do. It took a good three hours of constant hard work by the volunteers. There was no panic, everybody did as they were asked and it went very well.”
The school managed to get the support of a local company as emergency services was unavailable at that time due to the severe flooding in the residential area. Luckily, no children were involved or hurt in the horrifying incident as it all occurred after school hours.
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