Residents return after 16 months following Storm Babet flooding, which displaced many and caused extensive damage to homes.
Bridge Street, Regent Street, and Westminster saw the worst damage. Sixty homes had water inside. The River Erewash overflowed because of the heavy rain, following weeks of already wet weather, which caused the flooding.
The Environment Agency warned too late; the alert came six hours after the flooding started. Many people were already in hotels, and some were rescued through the floodwater. Now, residents fear heavy rain and worry about more damage.
Tony Iacovitti, 51, was on vacation when it happened. His Regent Street house had three feet of water. They learned about it the day after they left when their security cameras stopped working. They knew it was bad.
They just moved back after sixteen months. The insurance bill is around £200,000. The ground floor was damaged, and they stored things and rented another house, only having suitcases with them.
Iacovitti works in insurance. He stayed on holiday since the damage was done. He would sell if it flooded again. Kathryn Moss, 41, saw water at 5 AM in her Westminster Avenue garden. The street flooded quickly.
The alert came much later at 11:12 AM. Moss woke up her neighbors She lived away from home for six months, spending three weeks at the Holiday Inn. New flooring and a sofa needed replacing.
The insurance payment came in January, but companies needed payment upfront for repairs. She was there with her dog, and she called the whole situation “petrifying.” Finding a rental was hard because many people were looking for the same reason.
Moss felt unprepared and scared. Warnings seemed common and unreliable, and she is terrified of future rain. Lionel Whaley, 66, grew up in Sandiacre and had never seen flooding this bad.
His car was totaled by the floodwater, which reached three and a half feet high. Appliances, furniture, and flooring needed replacing. He lost old photos in the flooded garage. Joab Hare, 23, said his mom’s house flooded. The kitchen, walls, and floors all needed repair.
Insurance rates rose a lot after the storm. One person could not get flood insurance at all. Support was slow after the event. Residents helped each other greatly, and insurance and repair services were overloaded.
Replacements and repairs took a very long time. Some people used slow cookers for meals. Many cars on Regent Street were totaled. Steps saved some homes from severe damage; only their garages flooded.
Some homes were built higher, and many homes have three floors. New homes were built near the river. Residents had warned about flooding issues in 2021 because the area is at high risk of flooding.
A council report says more funds are critical. These resources are needed for the council and other agencies. Derbyshire needs to prepare for future events. Quick recovery is also important, as this should reduce damage and protect residents.
The Environment Agency sympathizes with the affected people. Since 2023, they have improved the flood warning system and are looking at river gauges more closely. This helps trigger warnings. They checked 79 flood warnings using Storm Babet data to see if the warnings worked as expected. They adjusted 15 warnings, changing the levels for alerts. Climate change is causing more extreme weather, so they will improve community resilience to flooding.