STAFF at Trago Mills have been congratulated for their 'tireless' efforts to protect the store near Liskeard from rising floodwaters.

The River Fowey, which runs along the edge of the store site, became a raging torrent in the early hours of December 22. The first warning of trouble came at 3am when general site manager Gary Whitelock received a telephone call at home from the store's night security team to say that the river levels were rising at an alarming rate.

He arrived shortly afterwards to find the site's riverside Chinese ornamental garden was already underwater, and more water was flooding into the front car parks and creeping steadily towards the store itself.

'We knew we had to act fast to protect the store and also we wanted to make sure that we would be ready to open to our customers at 9am,' said Gary. 'The water levels were very high and flowing incredibly quickly – and the noise was deafening.'

During the following hours, as more of the maintenance team arrived on site, the store's flood policy was fully implemented. A series of sluice gates that are located throughout the site were raised and these, combined with strategically-placed sandbags, were used to channel the water away from the store.

During the morning, the floodwaters increased but, again with careful management, the store remained dry and was able to remain open to customers throughout the day.

Chairman Bruce Robertson said the Trago team had worked tirelessly through the night and had pulled together in a spirit of true co-operation.

He said: 'They did an amazing job, not only in making sure that any flooding was managed in a safe and controlled way but also in keeping our warehouse stock and the store dry. It meant that we could stay open all day for our customers.'