Birkenhead travel shop battled to keep flood water at bay

Family-owned GB Tours has had offices on Borough Road for over 25 years and is well used to sending customers to the seaside, but never before has the water come to them in such dramatic fashion.

General Manager Andy Bickerstaffe explained to the Globe how the alarming situation unfolded.

He said: "It was bucketing down about 4pm, then all of a sudden we saw this torrent of water come down from the Tranmere direction, with a strong flow to it.

It became clear early on that improvised blockades were not going to keep the water out

"We were all looking outside and then there was just more and more water coming and coming. It was like a wave, racing past.

"It forced our door open, so we locked it and put cardboard and boxes around the bottom of it but it didn't make a huge amount of difference.

"But every time traffic went past you'd get a bow wave then. It would crash up against the door."

The front desk at GB Tours was back open for business on Friday morning

The GB Tours shop has a large front of house counter where staff could see the unexpected drama unfolding from their desks. Workers used mops and buckets to try and keep the water at bay, but as it turned out, flooding at the front of the building was the least of their worries.

Andy said: "Our car park at the rear of the building is lower than the road. Within 20 minutes or so the back was filling up and water was coming in through the two back doors.

"It just kept coming for a good half hour or so, but by about 5.15pm it just started to go at the front and staff could get out, but it was still full at the back and flooded the office.

Water started to stream into the GB Tours office from the back door

"We were moving equipment out of the way and we've just finished printing quite a few thousand brochures, so we had to be really careful that they didn't get written off."

The business office has an old basement which flood water found its way into and filled the room to about thigh height.

But fortunately for Andy and his team, water pumps that are designed for such an incident had previously been installed and automatically came into action and worked through the night, clearing out the basement.

Although the majority of the water was out by the time the Globe visited the premises on Friday morning, the carpet remained wet and the team had been working hard to make sure the business was able to operate as normal.

Andy added: "There was spell when you're thinking 'how high is this going to go?', because it just kept coming and coming, but then it just went. It was weird but we were just relived."

The hatch to the basment were water rushed during the flash flood

Despite the initial worry about water getting into the basement, Andy believes that having the cellar gave the water somewhere to go and prevented the floods from rising even higher in the main office, causing serious disruption at a time when the business is just starting to recover after the pandemic.

GB Tours General Manager, Andy Bickerstaffe

He added: "It's been a tough time for travel - as it has been for everyone - but we're still here. We've got loads of loyal customers, which is great. People are booking and confidence is slowly coming back.

"There's still little hurdles to get through each week with lots of different requirements, especially if you're going off the mainland.

"You work through it the best that you can and then something crazy comes along like this. But we're back open today so all is not lost!"