A decade on from two major storms which swept through northern England causing devastation, business owners say heavy rainfall still makes them nervous.
Coming close after Storm Desmond in early December 2015, Storm Eva was responsible for the flooding on Boxing Day in Kellie Hughes’ hair salon in Whalley, Lancashire. But she was determined to open the following morning with help from neighbours.
“When I look back I don’t believe what I actually did and how we did it and how we managed, because the whole salon was just absolutely trashed,” she recalls.
Her insurance has since quadrupled in price, she says.
Sue Proctor and Sarah Baxter faced a similar hit on their business as water levels rose significantly by the garden centre and cafe they had opened the year before, overlooking a river in the Burnley countryside.
“The whole garden centre cafe was in the river,” Ms Baxter says.
“We did our research before we came down and they’d never flooded in 50 years, so obviously this was total shock and devastating to us,” Mr Proctor says.
“Stock was going down the river – just nothing we could do.”
Kellie Hughes promised to reopen her salon a day after floods on Boxing Day in 2015 [BBC]
The pair cannot get insurance but have put in some flood defences and rebuilt their business.
Ms Baxter says she has been anxious about flood warnings for the past ten years.
“I know you pay the price for having such a lovely location, but it is always there,” she says.
Lancaster’s main electricity substation and fire station both ended up underwater, forcing fire crews to move bases.
Firefighter Kirsty McCreesh says it was “pretty much non-stop”.
“I don’t think I’ll have many more like that in my career,” she says. “It was just incident after incident.
“It’s devastating seeing the impact to people’s homes, people’s livelihoods.”
Military helicopters were called in to help deal with flood damage in Croston, Leyland, while some Rochdale roads resembled rivers.
Sue Proctor and Sarah Baxter saw their stock floating away in the 2015 floods [BBC]
Environment Agency area director Carol Holt says Lancashire has seen a “massive reconstruction job” over the last 10 years, with about £320m spent on repairing approximately 200 defences.
“We’re in a much better place now than we were before,” she says.
“Around 39,000 homes are better protected than they were before Storm Eva happened across the region.”
However there is still concern among residents and businesses.
Ms Hughes says she does not feel safe, especially after flash floods in September.
“They’ve done a little bit on the river, which is brilliant – that’s great,” she says.
“But I think what I witnessed in September is that, you know, we can potentially flood again.”
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