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| Children sit on a wall above floodwater in St Blazey, Cornwall |
After flash floods in Cornwall, hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes and had to spend the night in an emergency accommodation. Residents in the worst-hit areas expressed frustration at the lack of warnings and inadequacy of flood defenses. Environment ministers are expected to make a statement to parliament, setting out extra support for some of the worst-hit areas. Warnings were issued by television, radio and the Flood Forecasting Centre, run by the Met Office and the Environment Agency. However, the Met Office did not issue a severe weather warning until 10.30 pm, and the Environment Agency only send flood warnings to people who had signed up to its warning scheme. Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Gilbert said that the flood warnings for some areas had been inadequate and that he would be meeting the Environment Agency to “press them” on the issues. Ann Bailey, who runs the Harbour Trading Company in Mevagissev, said that the culverts get blocked with leaves and other debris this time of the year, so the drains cannot cope. The system cannot handle huge amounts of water coming down the hill. Prime minister David Cameron promised the government would do all it could to help the affected areas to recover. A multimillion-pound mopping-up operation has started.
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It must be terrible to be evacuated from your house because of a flood. It is not the first time this has happened in Cornwall. Ann Bailey tells in the article the reason for the floods, so it should be possible to find a solution for this problem. Peter Tatlow of Cornwall highway services said it is “almost impossible” to keep gullies clear of leaves and debris during the autumns. I think if the community spends more time on that, they can solve the problem. I hope that will happen also, so that the occurrence of floods will decrease.
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