'Tsunami' flooding strikes devastated village still recovering from Storm Desmond

Residents of Glenridding were urged to stay indoors after the river burst its banks sending water rushing through the village

The military, police, fire services and mountain rescue teams worked throughout the night in the village after more flooding (PA)

A Cumbrian village devastated by Storm Desmond has again been severely flooded after more heavy rainfall overnight.

Police, fire crews, mountain rescue teams and the military spent the night in Glenridding, in the Lake District, where residents were urged to stay indoors as fast-flowing water rushed through the village after the river burst its banks.

One resident, Mark Hook, described the second round of flooding in four days as a “tsunami”.

Although the Cumbrian Police issued a statement saying the flood water was “starting to slowly recede” it advised residents not to attempt to walk through it.

The village had already been hit by Storm Desmond (PA)

Members of the military were drafted in to help deliver food and water to flooded homes.

Craig Brown, whose family runs the Glenridding Mini Market, which has been flooded again, said businesses, shops and houses around him had all been affected by the relentless rainfall.

He said that measures taken in the wake of flooding in the area six years ago had not been enough to help the community this time around.

“After the floods of 2009 they dredged our beck but they didn’t do it deep enough, in my opinion, and they also didn’t fix the walls which the water was coming through six years ago, so this year it just totally destroyed it because there was no cement left in the walls,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“They definitely need to do some upstream flooding rather than just waiting for it all to come down.

“We’re waiting for the insurers now but the problem is we’d moved everything outside after Saturday’s flood so they could check it and they haven’t yet arrived, and now most of that has disappeared so I’m not sure what we’re going to do.”

This morning Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, described the situation as “absolutely horrendous” and said lessons must be learnt.

“I think the lesson we learn is that this is going to happen more often, and there are things you can do to mitigate, so around our county there were quite a few flood defence schemes that worked very well.

“It does cost more money to build flood defences, they are big ticket items, but they save in terms of the financial devastation that we’ll see as a consequence, more importantly the human devastation, it’s worth the investment and that’s what we need to do.”