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STATEMENT | Storm Arwen damage

STATEMENT | Storm Arwen damage

Hebburn Town FC28 Nov 2021 - 20:00
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Hebburn Town thank volunteers who assisted the club this weekend.

The club have been dealt a huge blow in the aftermath of Storm Arwen this week.

Club officials arrived at The Green Energy Sports Ground on Saturday morning to a sea of destruction as a direct consequence of the horrendous weather.

There was lots of damage to port-a-loos, the roof of the cemetery end stand, the outer perimeter fences across both North & South Drive, the perimeter fence and brick work on Victoria Road West, fencing in the car park, around the pitch and that segregated supporters.

The most significant damage, however, was one of our four floodlight pylon towers collapsing under the strain of the wind, damaging the lights themselves and all the electrics at the same time.

The damage can only be described as catastrophic with costs calculated at running into the five figure mark - a major blow to the club.

The next steps for the club are to undertake some structural reviews for safety purposes, whilst also consulting our insurers to understand what support is on offer under the policies held.

On top of that, we're working with The FA and Pitching In Northern Premier League to identify how we can make the site secure to host football matches again.

Director of Football, Stephen Rutherford, stated: "The damage is tragic, mother nature has firmly kicked us in the teeth.

"As devastating as the damage is, we are truly grateful that nobody has been hurt during the destruction.

"Hosting football matches is what we do - without adequate floodlights this will be difficult and we need to work with The FA and league with a flexible approach while we evaluate the damage and costs.

"The Football Foundation have reached out to us and we hope there will be support available in some capacity there."

We'd like to put on record our thanks to the emergency services who attended in the early morning of Saturday to lift the fallen floodlight from the road.

We also appreciate the volunteers who turned out to help make various items safe and secure around the site under the blusterous circumstances.

Without you, we couldn't have survived it so we're extremely grateful for your support.

We will update members and supporters as soon as we have more information to share.

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