Posted: Sunday 4 August 2019, 10:55
Work has continued through the night to lower the water level in Toddbrook Reservoir, to reduce the risk to homes, businesses and the community of Whaley Bridge.
Speaking earlier this morning, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Gavin Tomlinson said: “Emergency Services, partner agencies and volunteers have continued to work tirelessly through the night to reduce the risk of the Toddbrook Dam failing.
“Crews have been faced with a massive challenge to pump water from the reservoir and this work continues. A total of 22 pumps have been working through the night and we have been successful in taking about 35% of the water held in the reservoir out. This work will continue until engineers are confident that the water is at a safe level and the risk has been mitigated.
Speaking about the construction of the dam and the challenges that presents, Mr Tomlinson went onto say: “The dam is like a bowl, it doesn’t have straight sides, so as the water level drops crews are having to relocate the pumps to ensure they are able to work as effectively as possible.”
“Our priority remains the same, to pump as much water out of the reservoir as possible, to protect the Whaley Bridge community from the risk of the dam failing.
“Once again I would like to pay tribute to the Whaley Bridge community and praise their resilience. A further 55 homes were evacuated last night, in addition to those already evacuated on Thursday. We are doing everything we can to bring this incident to the quickest and most effective conclusion, so that this fantastic community can return to normal as quickly as possible.“
A second residents meeting has been arranged for those affected by the evacuation to ensure they are fully briefed on the current situation.
The meeting is being held at 5pm on Sunday 4 August at Chapel School, Chapel-en-le-Frith, High Peak, SK23 OTQ. It is essential that the emergency services have the contact details of all evacuated residents, therefore if any residents are unable to attend this meeting please ring the helpline number on 01629 533190. The helpline is open 9am – 10pm. Outside of these hours an answerphone will take messages.