UK: Fresh produce warehouse floods in torrential rain
The premises, in Bystone Lane, has been flooded in the past but managing director Ken Mortimer said this time had been the worst they had experienced.
He said: “I have been on this site for 15 years at least and it has been flooded to about a foot deep and once to an inch in the warehouse, but at the weekend it was four feet in the warehouse.”
There is a brook 100 feet below 5ADayBox’s premises but Mr Mortimer said the flooding occurred due to water running off the nearby saturated fields.
The flooding started on Christmas Eve but was exacerbated last weekend and affected two offices and one warehouse.
The worst day was Saturday and fire fighters from Devizes and Royal Wootton Bassett spent more than seven hours at the premises pumping out water. A crew from Devizes returned on Sunday and spent a further four hours pumping out water.
Staff spent hours moving produce from the warehouse that began to flood to the other warehouse which was dry but the flooding did not stop the company despatching deliveries all over the country.
Mr Mortimer said: “Our staff have been phenomenal and have come in to help. The fire brigade have been phenomenal. We have also had a lot of local support. A builder, who I don’t know, turned up with two submersible pumps which kept the office dry.
“We’ve had no disruption to customers, we managed to keep going all the way through. We have a very active Facebook page and customers have been amazingly supportive and thanking us for getting their boxes to them.”
Fire fighters attended five other flooding incidents in the Devizes area.
Source: www.gazetteandherald.co.uk
