Edinburgh homeless charity furniture shop swamped by deluge

An Edinburgh charity lost around £2,000 worth of donated electrical equipment and several pieces of furniture following the heavy rain last week.

Edinburgh Furniture Initiative, which sells second hand furniture to raise money for their parent charity, Four Square, was badly affected by flooding.

Its chief executive, Jane Devine, said it took volunteers and staff three days to clean the initial floodwater which hit on Wednesday, August 7.

Flooding at the store. Picture: Contributed

However despite opening on Saturday, the charity’s warehouse was underwater again on Sunday morning after more heavy rain.

Ms Devine said: “The deluge on Wednesday completely overwhelmed the drains, and we have a manhole in the middle of the warehouse which was overflowing so it was coming at us from all sides. We managed to get it all cleared up and reopened on Saturday, but then it flooded again.

“I spent most of Sunday cleaning out the electrical room, at its worst there was at least six inches of water.”

Sian Nicholson Head of Fundraising at Four Square and staff from EFI. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Several couches and mattresses were destroyed in the flooding and had to be sent to landfill, meaning the charity is short of stock.

All of their stock is either resold or used to help house people in homeless shelters across the city.

Donations can be made by calling 0131 557 7900.