June 21, 2019 4.28 pm This story is over 57 months old

Wainfleet flood victim felt helpless as water rose

“We just felt like we were left behind by the authorities”
Two months of rain fell in just a few days in Wainfleet.

A Wainfleet flood victim felt helpless when the water started to pour through her front door.

Tara Elizabeth, 31, claims that the authorities refused to help when she twice begged for sandbags to try and save her home.

Tara Elizabeth and her partner Ashley Dolman.

She has lived on Matt Pit Court for the last two years and said she started to finally feel at home until her family lost everything in the flood.

“It has been really tough for myself and my whole family,” the mother of two told Lincolnshire Reporter.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks.

Colby Dolman with his brother Archie on his shoulders.

“My eldest son Colby has ADHD and autism so moving to all of these different hotels has had a really bad effect on him.

“The whole situation has been so stressful that I became suicidal. We just felt like we were left behind by the authorities.

“We don’t know what would have happened if it wasn’t for our friends who got us some sandbags from a building site.”

She has been told to find a new home for the next six to eight months.

As previously reported, 284 homes were declared as safe for residents to return, but Tara’s home wasn’t on the list. At 5.10pm on Friday, June 21 police said it is now also safe for people to return to the remaining 248 properties in the Wainfleet area, including Thorpe St Peter and Great Steeping.

Tara continued: “The whole community had to pull together. An elderly neighbour from across the road had a foot of water in her home.

“We invited her to come over to ours with her brother and cat just so they could get warm again.

“Later that day we started moving things upstairs to try and get them out of the flood water. It didn’t work though because the damp has gotten into the walls and ruined everything on the second floor.

She lost everything in the flood.

The flood water climbed higher and higher.

“I was in bed on Thursday night when I first heard the water trickling through the door. We had to call 999 and be evacuated that night. Ever since then we have been moved from hotel to hotel.

“The insurance have told us that we need to find some alternative accommodation for the next six to eight months because there is a lot of work that needs to be done in our home.

“We can replace things like the kitchen, flooring and walls but we can never replace the things we care the most about. My eldest son Colby makes a lot of things out of wood but that’s now all gone.

Tara faces a long journey back home.

Around 1,000 people were evacuated.

“It’s very easy to point fingers but we don’t want to see that. We just want reassurances that something like this won’t happen ever again.”

Meanwhile the Freemasons in Lincolnshire have donated £75,000 to help Wainfleet residents get back on their feet.