More people evacuated amid fears of Whaley Bridge dam collapse
These are worrying times and we seem to be sandwiched between Brexit and Climate Change as the two challenges assailing the UK. This story feels like something from a credible play about a more dramatic parallel universe. It tells us:
More people are being evacuated from their homes in Derbyshire amid fears a damaged dam could collapse as further bad weather is forecast.
Fifty-five homes in the Horwich End area of Whaley Bridge were being cleared on Saturday evening, two days after some 1,500 residents were evacuated.
Water levels at the Toddbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge have been reduced by 1.3 metres since Thursday, but the condition of the structure remains “critical”.
Police said the additional evacuations were undertaken because of “a potential increase in risk of adverse weather in coming days and the ongoing risk of the Toddbrook Reservoir breaching”.
Derbyshire police allowed one person from each of the 400 Whaley Bridge properties evacuated on Thursday to return for a 15-minute visit on Saturday to pick up pets and other essentials.
At the Horwich End traffic lights on the Buxton side of the town, cars queued to get through the police blockade. Officers have stopped people entering the steep-sided village since Thursday afternoon when a month-and-a-half’s rain fell on the Derbyshire hills in just 48 hours, causing massive damage to the 180-year-old dam at Toddbrook reservoir.