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Regional press news - this story published 19 June 2006

News staff evacuated as flash floods hit office

by holdthefrontpage staff

News staff at the Hackney Gazette and East London Advertiser were left running for dry land when flash floods left the papers' editorial departments underwater last week.

Heavy rain hit Bethnal Green, where the two weekly papers share an office, late on Tuesday afternoon, and quickly swamped the yard outside and left the editorial floor - in the basement - under three inches of water.

But despite having to evacuate just 24 hours before deadline, the two papers were published as normal.

Editor Mick surveys the damage

Gazette editor Mick Ferris told HoldtheFrontPage: "At about 4pm on Tuesday it went very dark and there was a deluge of biblical proportions. I've never seen anything like it.

"After about ten minutes the yard was flooding badly and then the power went off and water began gushing up through the floor."

Computers were moved upstairs and staff grabbed everything that they could off the floor before the 19-strong editorial team were evacuated.

And with deadlines fast approaching, they joined sales and circulation staff upstairs, ensuring the papers went to press as normal.

Mick said: "We lost from 4pm on Tuesday until about 10am on Wednesday which is our busiest time of the week.

"It was a bit of a task but we managed to hit deadline, which we were very pleased about."

The water has now been pumped out of the basement and staff have moved back downstairs as the office is dried out.

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