Prince Charles visits flood damaged town

OHMYGOSSIP — Prince Charles has visited the town of Appleby-in-Westmorland which was devastated by flooding in 2015.
The 68-year-old royal made the trip to the Cumbrian town which felt the full force of Storm Desmond two years ago when it was hit with more than 13 inches of rainfall in 24 hours, leading to the flooding of 176 properties and leaving large parts of the town without electricity.
Prince Charles previously visited the town in 2015 just two weeks after the events of the storm, and on Tuesday (11.04.17) he retraced his steps across St Lawrence’s Bridge, which runs over the River Eden.
Speaking to Nick Raymond, a senior manager at Cumbria County Council, the royal asked how resilient the river was to flooding now, and was told the whilst repairs are still ongoing, river level monitoring equipment is now being installed.
Nick said: “When this bridge reopened nine days after the flood it was an iconic moment. It was one of 49 bridges that had to close and 557 that were damaged, so this symbolised that Cumbria had reconnected again.”
And Nick also revealed the council were struggling to find funding to repair the damaged bridges.
He added: “The Prince asked whether we had enough money and I said ‘No, we could always do with a bit more’.
“We are not just doing like-for-like replacement and we are offering some resilience but the funding won’t go anywhere near enough.
“He seemed genuinely concerned about the people of Cumbria. He has got an affinity for the county.”
During his first visit to Appleby, Charles met with flooding victims Mr and Mrs Potts, and met up with the pair again during his visit on Tuesday.
Mr Potts said: “He was very concerned when he came last time and was keen to know how we had come on. We are doing OK but we are a long way off being where we were before the floods.
“We will have to work at it, won’t we? You get nothing easy in life but you keep going and hopefully we will get the result we want – Appleby up and running. That is what we are all aiming for.”

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