Shrewsbury residents, businesspeople and charities have been responding as best they can to surging river levels as the Severn continued to rise on Wednesday.
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00:00 My name's Ollie and I'm the landlord of the Slope Inn and I've been the landlord of the Slope Inn since 2005.
00:06 So you've seen a few floods?
00:08 Yes, since 2005 I think we've flooded 50 plus times.
00:12 But major floods, there's only been three or four which have physically come across the road,
00:18 the main road in Shrewsbury, Smithfield Road by us, and actually come into the pub.
00:22 It's happened three or four times.
00:24 Forecasted 499, which as we're crouching here, would be about here.
00:28 So there's a lot of water, it will be across Smithfield Road, into the pub and surrounding buildings as well.
00:36 With all the rain we had yesterday in Shropshire and Wales, it could potentially be a record.
00:41 A record would be about there, the record's 5.25 metres at the Welsh Bridge in Shrewsbury back in 2000.
00:48 And yeah, that's potentially the record.
00:51 And that's a lot of water coming through the town and through the county.
00:55 If it is worst case scenario, doomsday and we do have a record flood Friday night or Saturday,
01:00 we'll obviously be shut and we'll miss the big game on Sunday, the Shrewsbury Wrexham FA Cup game.
01:06 The pub has developed in the 18 years that we've been open and we've relocated our cell and we've expanded.
01:12 So from our point of view, even if we had a record flood Friday or Saturday,
01:18 we can raise up all our equipment, all our stock, everything, and we won't physically have any damage.
01:24 But yeah, the cleanup is horrendous. The river, when it drops back down below peak levels,
01:30 it leaves an inch of sludge and it just takes us two, three days to clean it up. It's not very nice.
01:36 My name's Karen Williams and I'm the project lead of Foodbank Plus here at the Barnabas Centre.
01:40 And you're right next to the river.
01:42 Yes, we are. And as you can see, it's rapidly rising.
01:46 And so we've decided to close the food bank because it's unsafe for clients to be here on site.
01:51 Yesterday, we made that decision to enact our flood plan.
01:55 We removed all the food from the sheds where we store it.
01:58 And it's now dry and safe, ready for when we can reopen.
02:02 And when do you think you'll be able to reopen?
02:05 As soon as we can? I don't know. It depends on when the river actually peaks and how quickly it drops.
02:11 But as soon as it's safe to do so, we will be reopening.
02:14 All that information is on our website, www.bcp.onl, and on our Facebook page as well.
02:21 Is that a pump that's underneath your flat?
02:24 Yes, that is my kitchen and my living room window right there. So it's in between the two.
02:32 Are you worried about what's going to happen later?
02:36 I am a little bit. However, because of what we've got in place now,
02:41 my mind is a lot more at ease than it could have been.
02:44 But obviously, after everything that's happened in 2022, it does still cross my mind that it could be a repeat.
02:50 How easy is it to sleep with that thing pumping out of you?
02:53 I haven't been to sleep yet. I'm leaving here today to go to a hotel because I can't bear it anymore.
02:59 Tom, you have got together as a group of residents to pay for the pumps.
03:05 About two years ago, we created a right to manage group.
03:11 All the leaseholders have got together and we now manage the property.
03:16 About two years ago, each ground floor resident was offered a grant from the local authority.
03:24 I think it was about £5,000. Obviously, a single household can't do much for £5,000.
03:32 So, we managed to get everyone to come together, pull the £5,000.
03:36 We now have £70,000 available at the front, for which we managed to use all the pumps in the basement.
03:43 So, we now have six heavy-duty pumps in the basement to pump the water out.