THE flood defences in Glenridding have been breached for the second time in five days.

The village was destroyed in Saturday's floods as Storm Desmond - roads were smashed up by rocks and the entire community was cut off.

Volunteers had worked hard to try restore some normality but last night, further rain caused its defences to fail once again.

The heavy rainfall believed to be approximately 50mm fell yesterday in Glenridding causing the river banks to overspill. It is believed that eight properties and the basement of the hotel were flooded for the second time within a week.

Support from partner agencies will continue in the area today including the delivery of food.

Glenridding Bridge has been assessed this morning by structural engineers and has been confirmed as safe for opening to all traffic.

At first light military personnel made an initial assessment and the council aims to have a fully qualified bridge engineer on site later today.

Following work by Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, Police, mountain rescuers and Cumbria Highways overnight to ensure public safety, the county council has now deployed clean up teams to start removing debris.

During the night Cumbria Fire and Rescue deployed four fire engines and two swift water rescue teams into Glenridding to support operations.

Flood waters had begun to subside by around midnight but emergency services remained on site to monitor. A pump is returning this morning to begin pumping water out of the Glenridding Hotel.

Also overnight, highways teams deployed over 300 sandbags in an effort to prevent further damage.

A spokesperson for Cumbria County Council said: “To have two such significant floods one after the other is a real blow.

“Emergency services did a fantastic job overnight to support the local community."

Patterdale mountain rescuers helped Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service complete their checks of all residents in the area after being called out at 8.30pm.

Mike Blakey, Team Leader said: “Initially the water posed too much of a risk for people to cross and we were therefore helping to maintain a cordon around the area at the request of the police and fire service.

“Later we re-visited properties with fire personnel and reassured residents that we could get to them if they needed anything at all during the night.'

“The guys from Beckside construction have been doing a tremendous job with digging out the river channel since Monday. They have given their time and equipment at no charge to the community and have done an amazing job. It was tragic that this flood happened again before all of that work had been completed successfully.

“Some team members will be offering additional support to the community if there are things we can do to help today.

“This community is strong and will pull together again to make sure everything returns to normal as quickly as possible.

“Like all of the other LDSAMRA Teams who have been exceptionally busy, Patterdale MRT has attended over 50 incidents in the last 100 hours, including evacuating a pregnant woman, dealing with a heart attack patient and evacuating a care home in Appleby.

“We have also undertaken multiple flood rescues and assisted the Steamer, Lady Wakefield, when she suffered damage to her hull and began taking on water after breaking moorings on Ullswater.

“On Saturday we plan to put our base back together after the damage from the flood and try and sort all of our equipment.”

In a series of tweets online last night, Glenridding shop owner Craig Brown said: "Worse than last time in a matter of minutes due to the previous flooding.

"Right now in Glenridding the fridges and freezers we moved out of our flooded shop are now floating around."

Dehumidifiers, mops, buckets, rags and lots of volunteers will be needed to help the clean-up effort.

Whilst river levels are expected to recede today, flood water still poses a danger and police have asked members of the public not to walk or travel through any flood water.

Patterdale CofE Primary School is closed today.