Elderly couple rescued from home by firefighters on flooding drama

A COUPLE in their nineties had to be rescued from their home due to flooding.

Albert and Pat Hubbard and their daughter Caroline and son Michael were evacuated by six firefighters in a dinghy on Saturday when rising water surrounded their house in Loddon Drive, Wargrave.

Mr Hubbard, 96, a retired chartered surveyor, built the house in 1951.

The long rural road was flooded when the River Loddon burst its banks following the heavy rain last week.

Their son said: “They were taken a mile and a half by dinghy to Station Road and they had to go straight to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for a check-up. We came out just with the clothes on our backs. It has been a nightmare.”

Two fire crews from Caversham Road and Wokingham Road fire stations in Reading were sent to the scene at 9am and stayed for nearly five hours until all four members of the family were placed in the care of South Central Ambulance Service.

It was the second time that they have had to be rescued by the fire service. In 2014 Mrs Hubbard, 93, was evacuated by dinghy when water surrounded their home.

Ms Hubbard, 63, said: “We weren’t expecting it to go as high as it did. We had an alert but we often have those here. The water coming down from the storm affected everyone over a huge area.

“On Wednesday I went to pick my brother up from work and we decided to leave his car at the end of Loddon Drive so it was clear. On Thursday we were unable to get my car out. We still thought we would be okay, though.

“On Thursday or Friday we got the alert but by that point it was too late to leave. By Saturday morning the water was at the top step so I was putting the flood gates in. By the time the fire brigade arrived it was already in the house so it was just as well we had called them because it was in the carpet.

“In 2014 they got mum out on the Wednesday and me and dad and the dogs on Saturday. But this time we all went on the same day, although we had to leave the cats. They had to lift both mum and dad into the dinghy.

“I sat on the side at certain points and at other times my dad and Ihad to walk until we all had to get in the boat when we got to the end and the water was very high and there was a strong current. You’re isolated when you’re in a flood so you don’t realise how high the water has come.” She thanked their rescuers, calling them “fantastic”.

Ms Hubbard said that despite from suffering from a neurological condition, her father had managed extremely well during the ordeal.  

She said: “Dad had to walk through freezing cold water just in his shoes. He doesn’t have much feeling down there, which was probably a good thing.

“Mum was wet because of sitting in the bottom of the boat on wet towels. It was cold but we did manage to get some extra layers on them — two layers of jumpers and two layers of T-shirts.” Her brother, 64, returned on Tuesday and managed to get one of the two cats which he had had to leave behind but was unable to capture the other one.

He said: “It has torn me apart. He’s my best friend. I think he thinks I’ve abandoned him.”

The family are now staying at the Wee Waif in Charvil and expect to spend at least the next three weeks there before trying to find accommodation which is suitable for Mr and Mrs Hubbard, who cannot walk up stairs.

Ms Hubbard said: “The hotel has been fantastic. We were here for six weeks in 2014 and they were brilliant. They are delivering more comfortable chairs from the local authority so hopefully Mum and Dad won’t get pressure sores.

“Dad is struggling more this time. He did brilliantly through the water but his condition affects his capacity to process what has happened.”

Other residents along Loddon Drive and along the River Thames in Wargrave also had to move out of their homes due to the flooding.

Gaye Warren, 73, whose house overlooks Heron’s Creek, a Thames backwater, described the flooding as the worst she had ever seen. The ground floor of her home was flooded and some of her furniture was destroyed, despite the precautions she had taken to protect it.

The property was renovated 20 years ago to make it more resilient to flooding with raised electrics on the ground floor and workers from Wokingham Borough Council had placed 40 sandbags around the building.

Mrs Warren said: “It’s disastrous. We did a lot of work moving electricity up and we’ve got floor tiles up the walls. Everything is up on blocks but the river has still beaten us. It came in on Saturday morning. On Friday night everything was fine. There was a tiny bit near the front door but nothing to worry about.

“On Saturday morning, within about half an hour it was going in every direction. We’ve saved a fair amount but we’ve lost chairs and sofas unfortunately.”

A group of villagers, some of whom are part of St Mary’s Church, helped Mrs Warren save her belongings.

Rev John Cook said: “It has been a team effort of church people and people in the village. People have really rallied round. They were lifting up carpets and rugs and someone took them to drip dry in a garage. It’s a thing that any neighbour would do. People are very good at that around here.”

Mrs Warren returned to her house on Tuesday when the floodwaters had subsided and thanked her neighbours for helping her. “The village has been amazing,” she said.

Johnny Wyld, chairman of Wargrave Boating Club, and a team of seven other club members, took a canoe to the boat sheds on Saturday to attempt to minimise the damage.

He said: “At the end of every boating season we prepare the boat club for the winter and a key part of that is anticipating floods. The water goes all through the club as it is not watertight.

“We always start by moving things inside and piling things up. When the water starts to rise we already know which boats will be the most vulnerable. The first thing is to move these out the way.

“When the water is higher, it starts to affect boats inside like classic boats, the skiffs and punts. There’s a danger that if they start to float they hit the racks above so we have to make sure they’re clear and move some boats out of the way on to trestles, which means moving other stuff.

“We move fridges in the kitchen on to tables so it doesn’t matter if the water comes in. We did that initially but then we saw the water rising.

“When it got really high on Saturday there was a strong current flowing through the club. We went back in to reassess what we could and should move.

“The water was so deep that even with waders on it was difficult to get to the club. We thought it best to make sure that the boats were secure where we could and where other boats could be allowed to float and accept we would come back when the water had gone down a bit. We don’t anticipate much damage because of the preparations we took.

“A lot of people’s houses were flooded and that’s much more of a priority. It allowed people to focus on the more important issues of houses and businesses that were affected.”

The Velolife café at Willow Marina in Wargrave was several inches underwater at the
weekend. Owner Lee Goodwin posted a video on Facebook showing himself wading through the flooded building with chairs, tables and the counter all standing deep in water.

He wrote: “It’s difficult to see all the hard work we’ve done under water. However, the water will recede. Our thoughts are with all those affected by the floods, especially those whose homes are under water.”

The lower garden and car park of the St George and Dragon pub in Wargrave were flooded but the building itself was unaffected. Deputy manager Alex Rauta said: “Our bookings were a bit down but we were happy that it wasn’t worse. We have some benches underwater so we went to see the damage but we were quite lucky. We helped a couple of neighbours who had a flood.”

In Charvil, a new WhatsApp group set up by the village flood warden Duncan MacGregor had more than 200 people sign up to it by the end of the weekend.

The village’s community flood plan, which the Environment Agency had contributed to, was signed off in December following an 18-month flood risk assessment as part of the Charvil Neighbourhood Plan.

Parish clerk Miranda Parker said: “Most people affected are in places like Thames Drive and Loddon Drive and have dealt with flooding for years. They have their own plans, so the flood warden has been more concerned with the main parts of the village.

“The floodwater came up fast Friday night and Saturday but it didn’t breach anyone’s homes in the village. Duncan was putting the information together and sending out the flood plan. Our part is to spread the word about the plan.

“We did open the car park to cars as some parking areas had flooded and we would have opened the village hall if anyone had needed it but people had more comfortable places to go.”

A spokeswoman from Wokingham Borough Council said: “The council shared warnings and alerts from the Environment Agency on social media and through our email newsletters.

“We provided sandbags to our residents most at risk of flooding. We also closed roads when they were flooded and once the flood waters receded, we cleaned them before opening them again.

“We also supported residents who were evacuated from their homes and provided welfare checks on the most vulnerable.

“We will continue to grit the roads to make sure any standing water doesn’t turn into ice.”