Members Respond to England Flooding

After massive flooding throughout parts of central and western England left more than 15,000 homes in Gloucestershire without power and up to 350,000 people without running water in July, Elder Kenneth Johnson of the Seventy, Europe West Area President, made a £25,000 donation to the Red Cross’s relief efforts in Gloucestershire on behalf of the Church.

Church leaders near Sheffield also worked with civil authorities to distribute cleaning and other emergency relief supplies to those affected. Members helped each other and their neighbors clean up in the aftermath of the worst flooding in recorded UK history.

The areas of greatest concern were along the Severn, Avon, and Thames Rivers. Royal Navy helicopters and personnel rescued residents in areas covered by six feet (1.8 m) of water and more.

It took at least a week for officials to reconnect 80 percent of the homes cut off from running water, although the water remained unsafe to drink for some time, even after boiling, because of the failure of a water treatment plant.

A number of member families were affected by the flooding, but all members and missionaries were accounted for. The Hull England Stake center suffered a significant amount of water damage.

Environment Agency spokesman Anthony Perry told the BBC that flooding of this magnitude has never been seen before in this region. In March of 1947 rivers in the south of England, Midlands, East Anglia, and North Yorkshire burst their banks, causing extensive damage, but this flooding exceeded that, Mr. Perry said.