Businesses across Cumbria are again gearing up to deal with the effects of flooding as heavy rain has returned and lashed the county and prompted river levels to rise.
In Glenridding, the Glenridding Hotel was dealing with around 2ft of water inside its Ratchers Bar and Kitchen on Tuesday. A spokesman for the hotel told the Carlisle News & Star that contractors were inside trying to save their equipment and firecrews were en route to pump out the flood water.
This is the second time in recent weeks that businesses across the county have been hit by flooding. If you run a business in an area prone to potential flooding, it’s important to get the right level of business insurance to ensure you can continue trading in the event of problems or that you're covered for loss of earnings and any extra expenditure needed to get the company back on track after an unexpected disaster like this.
In Carlisle, the famous McVitie’s biscuit factory which employs 800 people working on around the clock shifts, is continuing its clean-up operation after the last floods caused by Storm Desmond.
The factory, which is part of the United Biscuits group, has operated from its base in Carlisle since 1831 and factory general manager Mike Heaney said the company would not be moving out of the city, despite the issue with flooding. This is the second time in a decade that production has been interrupted by flooding.
Workers are now helping to prepare the factory to return to production but it is likely to be a drawn-out process.
Mr Heaney said: “It’s only been two weeks since the flood and we are still going through the process of understanding the damage. We expect that to continue well into the New Year.
“We are under a lot of pressure from our customers to get back up-and-running but we need to make sure we recover the site properly and safely before we start back up again.
“There is no doubt about the future of this site and the whole of United Biscuits supports the site going forward.”
