EASTER FLOODS IN NORTHAMPTON: 20 years on from the devastating day people will never forget

A photo of children playing in shallow flood waters published in the Chron on April 9 1998 gave no indication of the devastation that was to hit Far Cotton and St James over the next 24 hours.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Apr 2018, 12:38 BST
Updated 13th Apr 2018, 15:51 BST
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Click here to see the 20th anniversary picture special of the floods in Northampton

We had little reason to expect anything extraordinary. Yet unbeknown to anyone, the Nene had already claimed a victim - 33-year-old Chalieo Spence had been washed from her boat into the torrent near the Carlsberg factory.

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In fact, no warnings came at all and as we took to our beds, nobody could forsee that between 3am and 5am the next day, those two areas of town would become something out of a disaster movie.

The day the floods cameThe day the floods came
The day the floods came

Homes and businesses wiped out, people made homeless and hundreds sleeping huddled in hastily-assembled rest centres.

As the tragedy of two lives lost emerged - pensioner Frances Fisher was found in her ground floor flat in Byfield Road on Good Friday - it became clear the sheer scale of what had assailed the town.

We look back on the seismic events through photos of rescues and drowned streets.

Days those who lived through them will not forget.

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/easter-floods-20th-anniversary-report-found-a-perfect-storm-of-failings-during-the-northampton-floods-1-8450761

Related topics:NorthamptonNene