WE HAVE LOST IT ALL
Despair and anger after day of record number of emergencies across Britain
STORM Dennis yesterday battered large parts of Britain still reeling from the havoc caused by Ciara.
Homes and businesses were hit in the worst deluge of recent years, with a record number of flood warnings.
Angry residents accused ministers of not doing enough to protect them. One distraught mum in flooded South Wales said: “We have lost everything.”
A MUM has told how she woke up in the middle of the night to find her home flooded as Storm Dennis brought more misery and travel chaos across Britain yesterday.
Tracey Newman revealed she feared for the life of her teenage son who was asleep on the sofa when the terrifying deluge struck.
She spoke as 762 flood warnings and alerts were in place, covering Scotland to Cornwall, the highest total since records started in 2006.
The Met Office also issued a rare red “danger to life” warning, with at least two people dying during the storm. Many communities were still mopping up after last week’s Storm Ciara when the latest rain and fierce winds swept in.
Tracey, 46 – who lives with son Tienne, 15, and 16-year-old daughter Aiko – was among residents of Nantgarw in South Wales affected by Dennis. She said: “I woke up at 3.45am when I heard water pouring. I thought the washing machine had burst.
“I went downstairs and the water was knee-high. Tienne was asleep on the sofa.
“I was screaming and shouting for him to wake up. He waded through the water to get upstairs. It was terrible. We have lost everything downstairs. It’s been awful. Really frightening.”
South Wales was one of the many areas hit by Dennis. Residents in Ilkley and Calder, West Yorks, were being helped by the Army over the weekend as they prepared for more damage to add to that already caused by Ciara. Locals were shoring up flood defences with sandbags.
In Herefordshire and Worcestershire whole communities had to be evacuated, while Dartmoor, Nottinghamshire and Hampshire also had significant floods.
More than 200 flights were cancelled due to winds of more than 80mph, affecting almost 50,000 passengers.
Railway lines in South Wales and the M54 westbound through Shropshire was also closed.
The River Ouse in York is tomorrow expected to match the 2000 levels of flooding in the city.
Pontypridd is in one of the three areas where major incidents were declared yesterday – along with West Mercia in the Midlands and Newark and Sherwood, Nottinghamshire.
In just 48 hours from Friday to Sunday morning 156.2mm of rain fell in parts of South Wales – well over the monthly average of 111.1mm. South
Wales Fire and Rescue Service group manager Paul Mason said: “In my 31 years in the service this is the worst I’ve ever seen. This weather is unprecedented.” The River Taff in Pontypridd reached 5.3m, double the previous record.
Houses, shops and businesses were deluged. Emma Jamal, 40, owner of Kookoo Madame boutique, wept as she said: “The water was halfway up the shutter, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s so devastating to see and I don’t even know where to start or what to do next. This is our livelihood. It’s our life.”
Prince’s cafe boss Joseph Gambarini, 66, said the floods are the worst since the Taff broke its banks in the early 60s. He added: “The High Street could be closed for weeks.”
Resident Michael Iles told how his home was under 3ft of water within minutes.
The 55-year-old said: “I saw the water coming through the front door. I looked outside and saw
In my 31 years in the service this is the worst I have ever seen
PAUL MASON SOUTH WALES FIRE SERVICE
a taxi being washed backwards down the street with the driver hanging on to the front bumper.
“The driver was in a terrible state of shock, he could barely speak so we stripped him off and put him in some dry clothes.”
Neighbour Huw Griffiths, 51, said the cabbie gave his name only as Islam. He added: “I shouted, ‘Leave it go, it’s only a bloody car.’ But he was very focused on saving the taxi. Then the river wall collapsed so I waded in, grabbed him and pulled him out of the torrent. He could have died, the taxi ended up being washed downriver.” The town’s Upper Boat Inn pub was left under 1.5m of water Manager Zoe Riley said the expected closure will cost around £90,000. Emergency crews used boats to rescue pensioners, families and children from cut-off homes in Nantgarw. Among them were Terri O’Donnell and one-year-old son Blake.
Churches and leisure centres in the area have opened their doors to house evacuated people as a huge cleanup operation commenced. Local
Labour MP Alexandra Davies-Jones set up crowdfunding to help those affected.
Two bodies were pulled from the sea in Kent on Saturday. A search was under way yesterday in Brighton for a woman seen entering the water.
The Red Cross said water levels are expected to peak today and tomorrow. It said: “It is important people are ready should the worst happen.”
ANGRY flood victims say the Government has not done enough to protect them – and they fear things will not improve despite the turmoil.
Little over 1% of Government infrastructure spending in England will be for flood defences, figures have revealed.
A third of the money is earmarked for London and the South East.
Funding must be reallocated to northern England to help cope with the increased risks of extreme weather, according to MPs there.
As he swept water out of his home in Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, amid Storm Dennis, Dominic Boffin said: “We’ve had no help with the clean-up, and when it comes to the town being repeatedly flooded, everyone seems to have their head in the sand.”
Appleby was also badly hit in 2015. The then Prime Minister David Cameron said flood defences in Cumbria “were not enough”.
Speaking now, cafe owner James Brighurst said that – despite the promises – no new defences had been built.
He added: “We’ve seen a few subsidies for some individual buildings in the town but nothing has changed dramatically. There is a feeling we are being ignored and forgotten”. Cumbria has had three “one in 200-year” storm events in
the past 10 years, according to former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
He said: “We know the climate is changing, and we also know the climate is changing with the most impact here in the North West of England.
“It is odd the Government has chosen to spend so much money on London
and the South East, and so little on the North. It’s also staggering that we’re spending so little money on flood defences altogether.”
More than 500 homes were flooded in Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire when Storm Ciara hit a week ago.
At least 200 of the properties were in Mytholmroyd – a West Yorkshire village that, like many in the area, is still recovering from the devastating Boxing Day floods of 2015.
A £35million defence scheme, started after those 2015 floods, is due to be completed there this summer.
As 75 soldiers from the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, arrived to build temporary defences,
Calderdale council leader Tim Swift said:
“This extra resource couldn’t be more welcome to support already exhausted communities.”
Parts of Yorkshire have been hit three times in eight years. Caroline Douglass, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said: “With the effects of climate change, we are seeing more frequent periods of extreme weather.”
Julie Foley, director of flood risk strategy for the EA, warned £1billion needs to be invested annually for the 50 years “just to keep the risk levels as they are”. She added: “There is a lot of focus around parts of Yorkshire and the Calder Valley, particularly following Storm Ciara.
“Our track record in investing in flood defences is very good – by March of next year we will have better protected 300,000 properties in England alone.”
She said £2.7billion has been invested in defences in recent years.
The Government says new measures protected 25,000 homes from being flooded by Storm Ciara. The
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said investment is based on where it is most needed, with the intention of helping “as many people as possible and to get the best outcome for every pound we spend”.
Defra said its figures showed that between 2015 and 2021, investment per home at risk of flooding was equivalent to £700 in the North, compared with £335 in the South.
Meanwhile, the latest figures published by the Treasury show almost £5billion earmarked for flood defences in England over the next six years.
It is 1.5% of the total £317billion spending on all infrastructure, which includes upgrading roads. The investnext ment plans were revealed as areas across the country – including Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire and the New Forest in Hampshire – were under water as Storm Dennis raged.
York Central MP Rachael Maskell said the Government has already failed to keep previous commitments to upgrade flood defences in the cathedral city.
She said: “Promises broken and programmes undelivered...
“We have also seen a lack of delivery when it comes to issues like insurance and even putting in extra flood resilience measures within the city.”
Nothing has changed much. We are being ignored and forgotten
JAMES BRIGHURST ON THE BROKEN PROMISES