IT’S a scene we’ve all watched on television - shattered people standing in front of the remnants of their homes and businesses as the operation to clean up after a disaster gets underway.

Until this week it was a scene I had never witnessed at first hand.

Over almost 40 years in journalism I’ve covered more than my fair share of floods and they have all been horrendous, but never have I seen the utter devastation which was wrought on Monmouth last weekend.

Until Monday my role in our coverage of the flooding had been to sit at my computer co-ordinating the work of the amazing team of journalists in Abergavenny and Monmouth as they reported back from the front line.

I knew it was bad but until Monday I had no idea how bad. Driving to Monmouth to assess the damage at our own office which had been in the thick of the flooding, everything seemed frighteningly normal.

As I pulled off the main road I realised everything was far from normal.

Main roads and side roads were jammed with fire engines still working to pump water away from houses and businesses as firemen, engineers and volunteers carried on the work most of them had started on the weekend.

An exhausted few perched on window sills or leaned against walls grabbing a takeaway sandwich or pasty before getting back to the work in hand.

All along the streets fronting the Monnow, the scene was the same - exhausted people standing and staring blankly into space with the remains of their flooded homes in piles next to them.

Everywhere people helped each other, a fireman stopped his work to help a struggling woman drag a sodden carpet through her front door in time to catch the passing lorry where council workers shared a kind word as they heaved it onto the growing pile of carpets, sofas, chairs and - heartbreakingly - children’s toys.

In the town itself, normally bustling with people, there was a pall of silence with the clean up efforts interrupted only when business owners took a moment’s respite from the sweeping and cleaning to stop and stare in disbelief this could have happened to them.

There were no raised voices, none of the banter normally associated with a mass effort… just the low buzz of people getting on with it, counterpointed by the hum of the generators as work to pump away the water continued leaving just the red mud behind.

For some, professional teams have been brought it, but for most it’s a case of grab any utensil available and start work alongside colleagues and the army of volunteers which has descended on the town to help out.

There is no doubt Monmouth will recover - the community spirit on display over the last few days is testament to that - but for those who lived through it, the weekend of November 14-15 is one they will never forget.

As for the Monmouthshire Beacon, like everyone else our office is a mess but we’ll pick up the pieces and in the words of the late Queen Mother at least having been hit ourselves, we feel that we can look Monmouth in the face.