Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and strategy director Paul Woodcock speak about the Catcliffe clean-up operation after flooding caused by Storm Babet.
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00:00 So we'll be making provision for homes over the coming days.
00:03 There's a big cleanup to be done.
00:05 You've seen there's a lot of people needing to move
00:07 a lot of stuff out of their homes, sadly.
00:09 At the moment, we still have some people
00:11 in the council's emergency accommodation people
00:14 that we put up overnight,
00:15 one or two people in our care homes as well.
00:18 So we'll be reaching out to people over the coming days,
00:20 continuing to provide that support.
00:22 But of course, a lot of people need to work
00:23 with their own insurers as well,
00:25 making their own arrangements.
00:27 We can help with that,
00:27 but they have to make their own arrangements as well.
00:31 - And what's the sort of general feel
00:33 in the community at the moment?
00:34 - I think people are really fed up.
00:36 Fed up, sad, angry about what's happened,
00:39 and completely understandably.
00:41 This is a community that's been through
00:42 really difficult times,
00:44 including difficult flooding in the past.
00:46 It's quite right that people are angry and upset about that.
00:48 I mean, it's heartbreaking.
00:49 It's heartbreaking, really.
00:51 Very difficult situation.
00:52 Saturday, people clearly needing emergency support.
00:56 And that turned into anger
00:58 as people have got into more difficult situations
01:00 as times passed.
01:01 - We've got over 40 staff here from the council
01:03 working on the cleanup,
01:04 in terms of getting rid of the debris,
01:06 in terms of making sure that the roads are swept and cleaned,
01:10 and ensuring that we can get it back
01:12 so that people can come back
01:14 and access their properties as soon as they can.
01:17 So we distributed, we did over 2,500 sandbags,
01:22 plus another 1,700 that we were working in partnership with
01:26 town parish councils and volunteers across the borough.
01:29 In places like Lorton Common,
01:32 we built a complete barrier there
01:35 to protect some residential properties there.
01:37 So we did, I think it was over 20,000 tons of sand.