The weather has a reputation for being quite wet, but otherwise mild and not extreme. But at the end of July, that’s exactly what happened. During the last week of July in London, flooding caused the Stratford Centre in London to close down completely for several days.. It was an exceptional event which was covered by several national newspapers. This was a disaster on a totally unexpected scale. It was impossible to do business for several days after the flooding happened. The damage to stock could have run into thousands of pounds.
The London shopping centre was closed down for several business days because of flooding. The flooding wasn’t completely the result of rains, or any weather-based happening. It happened as a result of a burst water main. Obviously, torrential rain had put a strain on the system. The Stratford Shopping Centre contains around 50 shops. It took 10 fire brigades and not less than 70 firefighters to bring the disaster under control. Needless to say, the closure lasted for several days afterwards. This catastrophe took place on Sunday the 29th of July.
The inside of the building was flooded up to three inches of water. However, reports say the road outside the building was also impacted, with up to eight inches of water in places. It was thought that the flooding would also affect the local areas with low water pressure for a while.
Although an odd river may burst its banks, there is very rarely flooding in the big cities on the level which would cause closure of shops. That puts this happening in the realm of the unusual. When Napoleon called the British ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, he wasn’t joking. Markets and shops are open every day for business in the UK..
But once in a while, exceptions occur. And what happened at the Stratford Centre was truly an exception. The firefighters worked very hard to prevent the water from entering the shops. They resorted to methods like sandbagging to do this. This also helped minimise the damage to stock as much as possible. Meanwhile, the crews did their best to tackle the damaged water main and try minimise the flooding and damage as much as possible.
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