Neighbours who swept water away for hours and lost belongings in a flood caused by a broken pipe are still awaiting an apology over the incident. A major Severn Trent pipe was damaged by "third party contractors on a construction site building new student accommodation" near High Road, Chilwell, early on Tuesday, March 7, which led to a large amount of water bursting onto nearby streets and homes for hours.
Homes on Gwenbrook Avenue and off High Road were the worst affected, with residents evacuated and roads becoming akin to fast-flowing streams. Those forced to leave their properties gathered at Christ Church Chilwell on College Road - while other residents tried to create makeshift barriers out of bins, tiles, and bags of soil to stop the water from spreading.
Nearly a month after the flooding struck, residents are still making repairs to their homes and no-one has taken responsibility for the incident which resulted in the loss of belongings and property damage. ALB, who own the old Nottingham College site on High Road, which is being turned into 162 student apartments, declined to comment or confirm whether the incident occurred on its premises when contacted by Nottinghamshire Live.
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Jonathan Gorham, 54, who lives on High Road, spent hours holding back the water, but his home was still damaged. "It was coming into our house but we were sweeping it away as much as we could.
"I got here at 1.30pm and there was water in the street. It was not that deep at that point but it worsened significantly in the space of 30 minutes.
"We were all sweeping for about five or six hours. The water filtered through underneath our house, but also loosened all of the tiles in our garden.
"We lost all of the things we were keeping in the cellar. All of our shoes were down there, so I was left with a single pair. We also lost our washing machine down there and lost our electricity until I redid the wiring.
"All the carpets will have to come up and our landlord says the repairs will take around four months, during which we won't be able to use 20 percent of the house. It could have been a lot worse, though, my neighbour's house was knee-deep in water and houses on Gwenbrook Avenue were directly hit by water and the bricks it threw up."
Mr Gorham, who works as a lead auditor, said he had not heard anything from anyone taking responsibility for the pipe damage, but praised the way local residents dealt with the problem. He said: "The thing I remember most is the community response to it.
"People were coming from all over to help, people we didn't even know from across the street wearing flip flops. The church got pizza for our children and brought us bacon sandwiches afterwards."
Mr Gorham added: "We still haven't heard anything from the developers or contractors, no apology or even just a visit to see if we need anything. I don't think we will now."
Scott Richmond, 55, a gardener whose mum lives on High Road, helped her as the water gathered outside of her home. "There are still remnants of the sandbags because it was washing all the sand away," Mr Richmond said.
"It was very stressful, especially for my mum who had only just got out of the hospital before it happened. It must have been two-and-a-half feet deep.
"Eventually the water went all the way past the house, through the garden and into the next door's garden. I had to drive and pick up my wife to help and we piled bags of coal against the door to stop it when it got into the porch.
"Having gone through the flooding on this street during the heavy rainfall years ago, we were worried it would become worse - but this was different in that someone caused it. It is still damp and the garden had to be fixed."
Mr Richmond also praised the "community spirit" displayed as residents fought to save their homes. "It was really inspiring the amount of community spirit I saw. They opened the church up for people that had to evacuate and they were bringing food to people," he added.
"I thought the council had come to clean up after it happened, but it was one of my mum's neighbours."
Ian Parker, 63, a retiree from Wollaton, who was attempting to drive into Beeston after emergency services cordoned off the area, recalled the dramatic scene as the water sprayed out of the large pipe onto the surrounding streets.
"We were driving to a shop, but were diverted by police at the barrier they had set up on High Road. My daughter got out of the car to see what was wrong, because we hadn't been told anything, and then she saw all the flooding," Mr Parker said.
"Driving past, you could see these new streams that were running down footpaths, even onto Queens Road. It was quite a scene - we were in complete shock but then we just felt really sad for the people impacted."
The Health and Safety Executive is aware of the incident and "continues to make enquiries". A Severn Trent spokesperson said the "complex" repairs to the main were now fully completed, adding works "will continue to get everything back to normal" as quickly as possible.”
