Thunderstorms and torrential rain are threatening to wreck efforts to stop a crumbling dam from collapsing .
As military and civilian teams battle to save a town from being swamped, the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for the area today.
It is feared any heavy rain will pour into the already bulging ToddBrook reservoir and pile more pressure on the leaking dam wall. If it fails, it will devastate the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge, where 1500 residents have been evacuated from their homes.
Thousands of gallons of water were drained from the reservoir on Friday and yesterday but police warned there is still a threat to life.
Tearful residents were allowed back into their homes for 15-minute stints to collect essentials but police warned if the dam collapsed they would have just 70 seconds to escape
Water levels had been reduced by 1.4 metres. It is believed it needs to be lowered by between eight and 10 metres to expose the damage on the water side of the wall before it can be repaired.
An RAF Chinook helicopter has dropped almost 500 tons of aggregate on the ruptured panelling of the dam’s concrete spillway in a bid to shore it up.
But Gavin Tomlinson, Derbyshire’s deputy chief fire officer, said yesterday: “The key is reducing the amount of water. The more we reduce it, the more we reduce the chance of something happening.”
