Everyone mucks in as Rochdale prepares for next deluge

Residents are glad to receive help as they clean up after flooding but see little point in protecting ruined homes against more heavy rain

Four days after the worst floods anyone in Rochdale can remember, the town was gearing up for the next torrent after forecasters predicted yet more heavy rain. Everyone was playing their part. A group of Syrian refugees from Manchester had even pitched up ready to help, and were put to work shovelling sand into sandbags, in the car park of the Conservative club in Littleborough.

"We saw the pictures on TV and wanted to help," said Yasser al-Jassem, 35, a teacher who came to Britain in the back of a lorry from Calais in May. "The people of Greater Manchester have been very good to us and so we wanted to offer our help to them."