A FLOOD campaigner has urged people to check their flood risk now as the county is braced for fierce autumn and winter storms caused by a ‘super El Niño’.
Mary Long-Dhonau, also known as ‘Flood Mary’, is urging people to prepare for stronger than average storms caused by the weather phenomenon – and not to be cynical about the risks.
On Friday, the Met Office said the seasonal outlook suggests an increased likelihood of ‘wetter than average conditions during autumn’.
The developing El Niño is expected to continue strengthening through autumn before reaching its peak during winter, and the Met Office says it will continue to monitor how it interacts with other climate drivers over the coming weeks and months.
FLOODS: Diglis Island and Chapter Meadows pictured in February with concerns rising that storms and flooding could be on the way (Image: Dave Harford // Worcester News Camera Club)
Mrs Long-Dhonau, who lived in flood prone Waverley Street in Worcester before moving to Ledbury, advised people the first thing they could do was check their flood risk with a simple Google search.
The property flood resilience advocate has already advised people to stock up on tinned food and even protein bars, warning that ‘if you prepare, flooding isn’t as bad’ and can mitigate some of the devastating affects of extreme weather which continues to leave people ‘broken’.
People simply put in their postcode into the Government website and it will identify their risk of flooding – either very low, low, medium or high.
Mrs Long-Dhonau said many people may be surprised to learn their flood risk has increased and also urged people to look into Flood Re and the Build Back Better scheme, a joint initiative between the Government and the insurance industry.
“People’s flood risk is rising due to climate change,” she said.
She also advised people to sign up for Environment Agency flood warnings and Met Office weather alerts with these updates allowing people to respond more quickly as a situation develops.
WARNING: Storms could be arriving soon in Worcestershire, a flood campaigner has warned (Image: TANYA LEAF (via Getty Images))
“Looking at some of the comments online, people are very cynical. They never stop to think it will happen to them,” she said.
But in the last three years, she has spoken to 3,000 newly flooded people and ‘not all, by any means, were by a river’.
Mrs Long-Dhonau said people could be flooded by run-off from hills and that surface run-off and flash flooding after heavy rain could ‘happen anywhere’, an increasing risk because we had ‘concreted over our world’.
She advised people to prepare a flood to do list and plan of action in event of flooding.
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The flood consultant, who has been asked to join a flood and drought task force, is also in regular contact with the flood minister, Emma Hardy MP, appointed Minister of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in July.
Mrs Long-Dhonau described Emma Hardy as ‘so driven’ and ‘the best flood minister in 26 years’ – a close working relationship she intends to maintain.
She also says she works closely with the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
She accepts that the effects of El Niño are not yet known and, where flooding occurred, would depend on ‘where the jet stream sits’.
However, she pointed out there had been ‘dreadful floods’ in Cumbria in 2015 during Storm Desmond, which was heavily influenced by a record-breaking El Niño.
She has advised some simple steps to protect homes, including investing in aluminium tape or flood tape to protect air bricks, stressing that the equivalent of ‘five builder’s rubble sacks of water can go through one air brick in an hour’.
Other simple tips include placing sentimental items like photos or family heirlooms upstairs (or arranging to have moved out of the house temporarily if the person lives in a bungalow).
“I swear by plastic boxes,” said the flood expert who suggested old wellington boots could be put around table legs. “The things people have lost breaks your heart,” she said.
A new Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce was launched last week, to champion community voices and strengthen the nation’s ability to plan for and respond to extreme weather. Mrs Long-Dhonau is part of the task force.
In a statement issued by DEFRA on Friday, a spokesperson said ‘the largest flood defence programme in English history is being delivered by the government, with at least £10.5 billion committed between 2024 and 2036 to protect homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure from the growing threat of flooding’.