Flood forces clothing bank to close to donations

Clothing Coventry will remain closed to donations until the warehouse has dried out

A charity that supports people in clothing poverty has been forced to temporarily close to donations after flash flooding.

Clothing Coventry said it would remain closed to donations all next week, after the waters damaged a warehouse and some stock on Thursday.

"We will need to replace much clothing in a couple of weeks, please hold onto donations until we can dry things out and stop the flooding," the charity said on social media.

The warehouse remains open for those in need to come to collect clothes, the charity said.

CEO Katie Wilson, said they were looking for volunteers to come and take a bag of clothes home, to wash and dry them.

Brand new men's clothes were ruined due to the flooding, the charity said

"Unfortunately it was a section of brand new men's clothes, that got the worst of it, which is always the way - it's going to be the best things that get ruined," she said.

"All the new men's clothes are going to need to be washed."

Ms Wilson said the flooding came on Wednesday night when a sudden downpour resulted in water coming up through the drains and damaging stock and kitchen cupboards.

'Don't have funds'

"About half of our warehouse has been flooded," she said.

"It's quite bad at the moment, we're just trying to work out exactly what we can do, what's wet, what's saveable and trying to just sweep all the water out," she explained.

The charity said it would post on social media when it can start accepting donations again.

"We're really hoping some kind donors will as well come on and support us and help us get past this cause it's an unexpected cost for a small charity," Ms Wilson added.

"We just don't have the funds to cover the drain doctor coming out or someone coming out to come help us."