An Aberdeen charity shop is facing an uncertain future after its premises were wrecked by flooding last week.
When volunteers entered the Homestart Aberdeen shop on George Street last Wednesday morning, they were greeted by a flooded ground floor, following the prolonged downpour on Tuesday.
The shop has been shut since Wednesday morning while the family support charity try to deal with the situation.
Major damage has been done to the floor – which needed to be sanitised – and some stock has had to be thrown out.
Homestart do not know the total cost of the flooding, but confirmed that, every day the shop remains shut, it costs them £300.
Georgette Cobban, Homestart Aberdeen’s scheme manager, explained the charity is unsure whether it will be able to continue operating from its George Street premises in the short term.
She said: “We don’t know when we will be able to reopen yet.
“Today, we have people coming to measure and asses the cost of getting new flooring and carpets put in.
“After today, we will have a better idea about when we will be able to reopen.
“But we don’t know how long we will be closed for and we may have to look for somewhere else temporarily which is a worry.
“We haven’t even looked at other premises, but we are hoping it will just be another few days of being shut and that we won’t have to move.”
Since announcing the news on social media, Homestart have been overwhelmed by the response of the public.
Mrs Cobban added: “We put it on social media to let people know we would be closed and that any more donations would be welcome because we had lost stock.
“And the response has been brilliant.
“We’re a local shop, some of the bigger charities get their stock when a van comes up once a week and delivers it, but we’re an independent shop so everything that we sell is donated from local people – if we don’t get the donations, then we’ve got nothing to sell.
“We have also had people getting in touch asking us if they could help with the clean up in the shop which has been amazing.”
