Community spirit shines through in flood
THE Morpeth community spirit shone through as a top council boss visited the flood victims’ rest centre.
Northumberland County Council Director of Adult Services and Housing Daljit Lally called in to speak to residents, staff and volunteers at King Edward VI School on Tuesday afternoon.
And she was impressed at how the community was pulling together.
“It has been really good in terms of the way people have reacted and the support that is being given,” she said.
“There is a lot of work being done for people and they are good Northumbrian people so they are pulling together in a crisis.
“The school has been brilliant, excellent. It opened up very early in the morning and there was a full range of support services there, not just for people who were evacuated, but for young people who came into school and were upset.”
Mrs Lally said the council provided an immediate response to the flood and would also help with longer term support.
She said: “We have had quite a number of initiatives across the range of services, for example local services staff worked with highways in assisting, along with the fire service.
“We had two rest centres, in Morpeth and Rothbury, and staff have been supporting people with accommodation, working with agencies and the Red Cross.
“The council has a clearly set out Flood Action Plan. At the moment it is the crisis stage of that, but we will move into the health and welfare side, housing advice and support, and support with people’s homes and insurance.
“We know it can be quite difficult for families so we are offering practical support and are putting alerts on the council website. If people don’t have access to the web they can ring our contact centre and speak to staff about a range of things.”
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Weather for Morpeth
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North east
