Angela Causer has only just moved back into her cottage almost two years after one of the worst floods in Britain wrecked her home.
Her house was one of the 1,600 properties in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, battered after a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours causing the River Don to burst its banks – with the water rising to the highest level ever recorded.
The entire village of Fishlake needed to be evacuated by firefighters in boats.
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to visit the devastated area Angela, 60, snubbed his offer to talk and publicly called him “that annoying little man” for his refusal to declare the situation a national emergency.
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Last week, Angela finally moved back into her cottage. She had not realised she would be homeless for 22 months.
Since that night of November 8, 2019 Angela and her husband Paul have been staying with friends. “We thought it was going to be short term but it turned out to be almost two years because we got way-laid by Covid.”
Recalling that night, she said: “The thing I remember most is the noise, it sounded like a waterfall as it overtopped the bank.
“The water just started getting higher and higher and higher.
“They tried building up the sandbags and brushing the water away but nothing worked. We knew then we had to get upstairs, and it gradually came up and up. We had about four inches.”
The prison rehabilitation officer believes that climate change was a large contributory factor to the situation.
She added: “There’s far more extremes and a lot more rain. I’ve never seen anything like that and we’ve been living here for almost 20 years.
“The Government has to take climate change seriously, everyone does.”
England has experienced a major flood almost every year since 2007, damaging more than 100,000 properties, according to scientists in the Climate Coalition. They warn extreme events could become even more frequent.
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It is not just households in areas prone to flooding which are in danger.
According to the Environment Agency, around one in six properties in the UK is at some risk.
While 2.4 million people live in flood risk areas, a further 2.8 million are susceptible to surface water flooding.
More than one in 10 of all new homes in England since 2013 have been built on land with the highest risk of flooding - more than 84,000 properties.
A Greenpeace investigation last year also uncovered how more than 11,000 new homes are planned to be built on land at the highest risk of flooding in the regions battered by the worst winter storms in a generation. In the Doncaster area, where Fishlake is, nearly 4,000 homes are planned.
Also in Shropshire, where a major incident was declared and residents were evacuated during Storm Dennis in February 2020, 764 homes are due to be built in areas with a high risk.
Lisa Reid, 46, who was also in Fishlake for the flood, said: “It has to be climate change. Something has changed and it is happening all over the world.
“Look at New York recently and the terrible forest fires. We need to have a proper conversation and it means everybody making changes whether that’s with their car or heating.”
Describing the devastation in 2019, she said: “The entirety of my world was covered in waist-high brown water. I was shocked by the depth of the water.”
But some good has come out of the disaster and the villagers talk of the community spirit which surfaced.
They have created a book about their experience called Flood: A Village Underwater which is due to be published on Sunday.
Pam Webb, whose business Truffle Lodge Luxury Spa survived the disaster, said: “We were living in ignorant bliss before the flooding.
“Without being hysterical the anxiety levels are higher when it starts to rain. It’s the topic of conversation in the village.”
