UK on verge of the wettest autumn on record
Sarah Knapton
Phoebe Southworth
BRITAIN is on track for the wettest autumn since records began, the Met Office has said, as more heavy rain left homes and businesses flooded, and forced schools to close.
Currently, the wettest period between September and November occurred in 2000 when 18in (457mm) of rain fell, but torrential downpours in recent weeks have pushed this year’s rainfall to 16in (411mm) with two weeks to go. Last week, there was 50-100mm of rain – a month’s worth – in just 24 hours from the Humber to Sheffield.
Speaking at a briefing in central London, Will Lang, the head of civil contingencies at the Met Office, said: “It is a very wet autumn in many areas. What we have seen in the last week is the cumulative effect of rainfall over several weeks. It is close to the wettest autumn on record.”
If rainfall exceeds the 2000 level, it will officially be the wettest autumn since records began in 1852. So far, 900 properties have been flooded, while 21,000 have been protected. The greatest number of properties ever flooded was 55,000 in summer 2007.
Thirty-eight pumps are being used to lower river levels in Fishlake, South Yorkshire, one of the worst affected areas, and half of properties are now free from water. Rescuers hope to get all homes water-free by tomorrow and restore power to the 230 homes that are still without gas or electricity. John
Curtin, the executive director of flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency (EA), said: “We have broken all sorts of records in the last eight years. We have this continual pressure from the weather and what it has thrown at us.
“This is only November and it is quite early in the season.”
Parts of the Midlands were also severely affected by flooding yesterday with Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue Service rescuing 97 people and a dog after responding to 43 different incidents in which vehicles had become stuck in water, over the past 24 hours alone.
Six people and a pet dog were also reached by boat during two separate rescues in Evesham, Worcs, yesterday morning, the brigade said, as the river Avon burst its banks.
The river has reached its highest level in the town since the damaging floods of 2007, and dozens of homes and properties have been inundated.
The town’s community hospital has closed to new admissions and outpatient clinics have been cancelled.
Flood barriers have been erected at Upton-upon-severn, Worcs, and, for the first time, in Stratford-upon-avon, in Warwickshire, where the Avon is also rising. In Stratford-upon-avon,
‘‘We have this continual pressure from the weather. This is only November and it is quite early in the season’
the EA has been putting up a temporary barrier protecting 20 properties and businesses, near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which is on the riverside.
A study by Unearthed, the investigation arm of Greenpeace, found that thousands of homes are set to be built in high-risk flood zones across England, including 3,000 in an at-risk area near Fishlake. Across Lincolnshire, which currently has five flood warnings in place, 5,227 homes are planned in high-risk flood zones.
In Sheffield and Doncaster, hundreds of new-builds are planned in high-risk zones. In addition, 5,123 homes are planned for medium-risk areas, including a “new town” just over one mile from Fishlake.
Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: “Flooding has been flashing on the radar as one of the major impacts of the climate emergency in the UK for years, yet our planning system keeps failing to properly recognise it.
“Planning for thousands of new homes to be built in areas at high risk of flooding is literally planning for disaster. We have a housing policy that tends to put housebuilders’ profits before people’s chances of not seeing their homes underwater.”
For more than 1,000 years it was an independent trading republic known as La Serenissima, but there was nothing very serene about Venice this week. On Wednesday, the city was inundated by the highest tide since 1966, a 1.87 metre (6ft) flood that damaged the iconic Byzantine basilica, swamped St Mark’s Square, dumped a tide of debris in narrow alleyways and poured murky brown water into shops, hotels and homes.
On Friday, the water came back with a vengeance. As eerie flood warning sirens wailed over the city, another high tide struck, raising the level of the lagoon 1.6 metres (5.3ft) and again leaving much of it underwater.
Venetians and visitors sloshed through flooded alleyways and piazzas in rubber boots as the water in some places reached up to their waists.
A cormorant floated elegantly down a narrow passage normally thronged with tourists, while shopkeepers and restaurants used mobile pumps to try to hold the water at bay.
The days of catastrophic flooding have brought into sharp relief the problems that have plagued Venice for decades – from the suffocating impact of the 20million day-trippers and cruise ship passengers who descend on the city each year, to the inexorable decline in the number of inhabitants.
The high-tide calamity has raised deep concerns over the consequences of rising sea levels for a city in the front line of the climate change battle. “We are used to flooding and we know how to deal with it, but my generation has never seen anything like this,” said Alessandro Guggia, 42, as he watched the water in front of his house in the Castello district.
“When I was a kid, it was normal to have an acqua alta [high tide] of 1.1
‘We are used to flooding and we know how to deal with it, but my generation has never seen anything like this’
metres or 1.2 metres. But now it’s normal to experience 1.3, 1.4 metres.
“Sooner or later people’s resilience will run out. About 90 per cent of my classmates from school have left because living here is a battle.”
Venice has witnessed a drastic population decline. At the end of the Second World War, there were 175,000 inhabitants. That fell to 65,000 in 2000 and now stands at 52,000.
In a pharmacy near the Rialto Bridge, an electronic counter chronicles the exodus in red numbers, as Venice’s life blood leaches away.
Venetians worry that these high tides will slowly erode not just the city’s fabric but the morale of its inhabitants. “We’ve seen a lot more flooding in recent years. It’s the frequency that is concerning,” said Paolo Brandolisio, 52, from a flooded workshop where he makes wooden oars for Venice’s 450 gondoliers.
He managed to save his powered lathe and electric belt saw from yesterday’s flooding, which left the workshop thigh-deep in water, but supplies of wood and other tools were beneath the water.
The flooding comes just days before a referendum on whether Venice should have its own dedicated city council, carving itself off from a large chunk of the mainland which is currently jointly administered as Veneto. Campaigners say the vote, set for Dec 1, is a make-or-break moment.
“A mayor looking after just Venice would have more time to dedicate to the things that really matter to the city,” said Jane da Mosto, the British head of a think tank called We Are Here Venice.
As if to illustrate the point, the regional government of Veneto had rejected measures to combat climate change just minutes before its historic offices on the Grand Canal were inundated by floodwater on Tuesday
‘This is Venice’s last hope. I think we should be able to manage our own affairs. We should be separate. It’s logical’
night. The climate change action, part of a new budget, was rejected by the majority Right-wing parties including the League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
“It’s rather ironic that the council chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority parties rejected our proposals,” said Andrea Zanoni, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party. But a senior League member dismissed the criticism, saying the regional government had spent €965million (£826m) over the past three years to combat air pollution and problems related to climate change.
Matteo Secchi, the president of a campaign group called Venessia.com, is hoping that Venetians will vote “yes” in the referendum. He wants a special statute under which Venice would keep all its tax revenues, rather than send some to Rome. He points to five Italian regions, including Sardinia and Sicily, that already have this.
Four similar referendums have been held in the past, and all failed. But Mr Secchi is optimistic. “This is Venice’s last hope. I think we should be able to manage our own affairs. We should be separate. It’s logical. And it’s the only way out of our current situation.”
When it comes to trying to protect the city from high tides, Venice has put all its eggs in one basket. Engineers are working on a system of flood barriers called Moses. They are bolting 78 hinged metal gates to the floor of the lagoon across the three narrow channels that separate it from the Adriatic. These will be raised whenever the city faces a high tide of 1.1 metres or more.
But the project has been dogged by corruption scandals, delays and inflated costs. More than €5 billion has already been pumped into it. It is expected to cost tens of millions of euros more each year in maintenance.
Construction began in 2003 and was meant to have been finished years ago. Instead, the latest projection is that it will be ready at the end of 2021.
Ms da Mosto, from We Are Here Venice, said: “The whole process was rotten, from the political decisionmaking to the design, execution, contracting, auditing and supply.”
But Venice’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, stated plainly this week that at this point there are no alternatives. “There is no plan B,” he told La Stampa, an Italian daily. “Moses is currently the only solution available for Venice.”
The effect of the latest flood was evident at Acqua Alta, an atmospheric bookshop voted one of the 10 most beautiful in the world. Its name felt painfully appropriate amid hundreds of books turned to a mushy pulp. “We have to keep going,” said Chiara Tonello, who works there. “Many people are abandoning Venice and if these dramatic floods continue, you fear that it will one day turn into some sort of legend, like Atlantis.”