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Flooding forces Post & Mail disaster plan into action

Papers at the Birmingham Post & Mail were under threat as millions of gallons of water flooded into the papers’ city centre headquarters.

An eight-inch water hydrant which feeds the former Post & Mail tower had sheared during Friday evening, flooding the entire area and taking out electricity for the building.

It meant there was a limited edition of the Birmingham Post and no Sports Argus, but a single-edition Evening Mail was printed at Coventry after emergency contingency plans swung into action. Printing of the Sunday Mercury was also moved.

Quick-thinking staff averted a major disaster by alerting fire crews – who got local power supplies turned off because of fears of an electrical explosion at a sub-station in the Post & Mail’s basement.

But the chaos hit all computer terminals and print works. Staff were evacuated from the building, disrupting preparations for Saturday’s edition of The Post.

Editorial worker Delia Shaw was first to spot the deluge of water as it flooded into the building’s second basement level.

She said: “At first it was just a trickle so I went and told security. By the time I got back to my car it was like something out of Titanic.”

Within minutes the underground car park was nine inches deep in water, which then ran down into the floors below ending up in the basement press halls.

Post & Mail managing director Alistair Nee said: “A very well prepared disaster recovery plan supported by good people swung into action immediately allowing us to publish our newspapers today.”

Regional operations director Colin Davies said: “You really had to see it to get the scale of it, we were looking at the size of several football pitches nine inches deep in water.”

Fire officer Gary Edwards said: “This was a very severe flood. We had to evacuate the building because we had millions of gallons of water running through it at high pressure with live electrics inches away.

“Luckily we managed to isolate the electrical distribution board in the basement just before the rising water hit it.”

Water and electrical engineers attended the scene while fire crews pumped away the worst of the water.

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