Sewage floods through homes (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Sewage floods through homes

9:30am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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WAKING up to find their toilets overflowing with sewage was probably not the way three families wanted to start their working week.

But that is what faced Nicky Gibbs and her neighbours as they woke on bank holiday Monday after hearing gurgling sounds coming from their downstairs toilets and watched in horror as two inches of foul water swept through their terraced homes.

Within an hour all three families, from Freemantle Close, Oakridge, Basingstoke, were outside to avoid the tide.

With furniture, electronics and personal items all soiled, they were put into temporary accommodation by Sentinel Housing Association.

Mrs Gibbs, a part-time human resources officer who lives with husband Dean and their four children, said: “It was like a fountain. We kept emptying the toilets but by the time we had done so, they had filled up again.”

Neighbours Richard and Michelle Vockins were also forced out of their home, along with their 10-week-old baby and four children aged three, five, eight and 10, as were Jackie and Gillon Champion.

“I appreciate this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” Mrs Gibbs added. “But emergencies happen regularly enough that they [Sentinel] should be able to deal with it.”

The Vockins family have since returned to their home but the Gibbs and Champion families are still in temporary accommodation. No firm date has been set for their return.

Melissa Chapman, Sentinel’s neighbourhood manager for Oakridge, said: “It’s an awful thing to go through, and we’ve done all we can to help.

“We moved the families into £140-a-night apartments, gave them £50 each to buy food and essentials and organised a professional clean-up. Although all this took a few hours to sort out, we believe it’s a better situation than putting the families up in a hotel room with no kitchen.”