{"id":153475,"date":"2024-10-14T10:44:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T10:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/14\/flood-defences-in-worst-state-on-record\/"},"modified":"2024-10-14T10:44:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T10:44:12","slug":"flood-defences-in-worst-state-on-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/14\/flood-defences-in-worst-state-on-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Flood defences ‘in worst state on record’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flood<\/div>


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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Phoenix Graham is still living in a caravan, a year after her home flooding during Storm Babet<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Flood defences are in the lowest state of repair since records began as the country heads into another wet autumn, a minister has said.<\/p>\n

Emma Hardy, the floods minister, described the situation as “extremely worrying” after the wettest 18 months on record in England.<\/p>\n

Her warning comes as the Environment Agency (EA) launches a week of action to coincide with the anniversary of Storm Babet, when 2,150 homes were flooded nationwide.<\/p>\n

One victim, who is still living in a caravan in the driveway of her Lincolnshire home, said she felt forgotten about and feared further flooding in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TheDroneMan.netTheDroneMan.net<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

About 200 properties in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, were flooded during Storm Babet<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Phoenix and David Graham were forced out of their home in the village of Ruskington, as Storm Babet brought devastating flooding to communities across the UK in October 2023. <\/p>\n

The three-day period of the storm was the third wettest in England and Wales since 1891, according to the Met Office.<\/p>\n

The Grahams’ home is just yards from Ruskington Beck. It is normally a tiny stream, but last October brought more than 3ft (1m) of floodwater into homes in the village. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Graham described the issue of flooding as a “national crisis”. <\/p>\n

“At the end of the day it’s costing the country, the government and everyone fortunes,” he said. <\/p>\n

“England is an island and it needs a drainage system putting in that’s fit for purpose.”<\/p>\n

The couple are facing the prospect of a second Christmas out of their home.<\/p>\n

Building work still to be completed includes raising the floor and converting an area of the loft into a bolthole, in case it floods again.<\/p>\n

Mrs Graham said living inside the caravan was like “being in a drum” when it rained.<\/p>\n

“I dread the rain now,” she said. “You hear it beating on the ceiling and you just think, ‘here we go again’.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Turbocharging repairs’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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About 5.5 million properties in England are at risk from flooding according to the EA. <\/p>\n

Last winter, 5,000 were flooded after Storm Babet was followed in quick succession by storms Ciaran and Henk \u2013 though the EA said a further 250,000 were protected by defences during those incidents.<\/p>\n

Hardy has formed a Floods Resilience Taskforce, a group bringing together local and national government expertise to coordinate flood preparation and resilience.<\/p>\n

She said she was investing millions to “turbocharge” improvements to defences.<\/p>\n

“Our critical flood defence assets are at their lowest point,” she added.<\/p>\n

“We’re working on repairs. We’ve got millions of pounds going in to try to fix as many as possible.<\/p>\n

“The Environment Agency are looking at deploying mobile assets, but this is not an inheritance that anyone wanted.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Brown<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A flooded street in Horncastle after Storm Babet<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The EA has increased spending on flood defence maintenance and repair to \u00a3236m, up from \u00a3200m in the past year.<\/p>\n

It said it had carried out 216,000 checks since last winter, focusing on the areas of highest risk.<\/p>\n

Pumps have been pre-emptively deployed at seven “strategic depots” in vulnerable regions around the country.<\/p>\n

But the stark nature of the challenge was highlighted last month when almost 1,000 properties flooded after heavy rain battered parts of England and Wales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Caroline Douglass, EA executive director of flood and coastal risk management, said the country had seen an “unusually wet September”.<\/p>\n

She urged homeowners to sign up to flood warnings<\/a> as part of Flood Action Week, which runs until Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t always predict where the rain will fall or where flooding will occur, but we do know which areas are at risk,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Josie Field and her husband Tony do not know when they will be able to return to their flood-damaged home<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Last winter, 876 properties were flooded during storms in Lincolnshire, according to the county council. <\/p>\n

Parts of Horncastle, including almost 200 homes and businesses, were submerged during Storm Babet.<\/p>\n

Josie Field and her husband Tony were devastated when their bungalow flooded. They were forced to throw away “skip-loads” of damaged possessions and are still living in a caravan.<\/p>\n

Mrs Field said the past year had been “hell”, adding: “We’re bouncing between insurance companies. It really has affected our health.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think we have had a day without thinking about what’s going to happen.<\/p>\n

“Are we ever going to get back into our home? We’re looking at the weather all the time.”<\/p>\n

Listen to highlights from<\/i> Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the <\/i>latest episode of Look North<\/a> or tell us about a story you think we should be covering<\/i> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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BBC Phoenix Graham is still living in a caravan, a year after her home flooding during Storm Babet Flood defences are in the lowest state of repair since records began as the country heads into another wet autumn, a minister has said. Emma Hardy, the floods minister, described the situation as “extremely worrying” after the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[47413,5279,1541,2480,5750],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153477,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153475\/revisions\/153477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}