Name: 'Danger to life' flood warnings in place as River Severn rises
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T04:52:44.000Z
Duration: 6 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

But this is all they can do to defend that pub.

Life of sorts tiptoes around the rising water.

For others, it's not as easy to carry on.

Then it's just It's pretty when you're home or the business you've built up is underwater.

They never feel fair with clear up from last week barely begun, this feels especially cruel.

Yeah, it's just gonna flood just sitting right.

Always know unless they can do something about it.

I'm not too sure way looking at moving our cellar, which will help having above ground.

But if it gets into the doors and things like that, it's just this constant money spending.

I don't know what it's time to pack up and go.

And in the future, we're being told not everywhere will be protected from extreme weather.

The Environment Agency is warning biggest storms more often.

While they can defend most places, some may have to be abandoned.

Yeah, right now, though, they're smaller battles being one.

You just get in, get in the ring, like by this dad, making sure his daughter's got some shopping in when we spotted them.

Anna on her two dogs have been upstairs for 24 hours.

It's deeper this time than it was last week, maybe three times when they when they start talking about the idea of some places, no being liveable in the future.

Because it's actually they're talking about your home, aren't they?

Keep going as we are, then this is not gonna get better.

We're not gonna have less floods, have more submerged twice in a week.

And for some, the warnings will be harder to ignore them for others.

Finally, we'll only I spoke to the head of the environment Agency.

So James Bevin began by asking if his choice of language to describe the flooding situation was meant as a wake up call to politicians.

Well, I think we did see a weather bomb explode over whales in the West Midlands 10 days ago in Storm Dennis, we saw unprecedented levels of rainfall.

We saw River's rising to record levels, and then we saw that, tragically, the consequences of that which is the flooding that's that's taken place.

And that is a function off the climate emergency, which we know.

It's thistles, the new normal on Do we need to wake up and we need to deal with it on.

But your agency has been warning about flood plains and the dangers of flooding for a long time now, and yet houses continue to be built in the flood plains off England.

Well, we're not saying there should be no development in the floodplain.

We're standing right now in London, which is in a floodplain.

People need houses, and some of them are going to need to be built on the floodplain.

What we are saying is that we should only be developing the floodplain.

If there is no serious alternative, can you give us some idea of how many houses have been built on the floodplain since you started warning us about the dangers of building houses in?

What I do know is that our estimates other in 50 years the numbers of houses that are on the floodplain could double, and that is a figure that really need to pay attention to.

Well, some communities have to relocate all together for good.

So no one is saying that people should be forced to leave.

I understand why people live where they lived.

Most people want to stay with us, but if they flood every year, but I do think we need to begin a conversation with those communities about their long term future.

What do you think the guidelines for construction should be?

And should government get more involved in a line, things to be built in certain areas or not?

Well, I think we already have quite good cooperation with the planning authorities.

So when a new developments proposed in a town or city environment has to be consulted, we find that actually, when we say no, we recommend no to a new development.

In almost all cases, the planning authority will follow our advice.

But we need to continue to be listened to what you have to say.

Well, what I can tell you is that well over 97% off the planning applications where we give advice.

The advice is followed by the local authority either not to build in a particular location or only to build with modifications that will ensure that people are safe from flooding.

But to those people have been affected by flooding.

I mean, this is a deeply personal, traumatic experience that they go through on a regular basis, isn't it?

We know that in areas that have been hit by floods, there is significantly more mental illness.

That's significantly more physical illness.

So my heart really does go out to everyone who's experienced flooding.

Actually, I think it makes really good economic sense to invest in better flood protection because the actual the costs of investing in flood protection.

Ah, far less than the damages incurred in replacing What are you hoping that the politicians will now get more involved?

Well, the government's already doing a lot of the government's provided £2.6 billion for us.

Thio go through a building program or flood defenses that has already better protected 200,000 homes over the last five years.

The government also made a manifesto commitment.

Thio, invest another £4 billion of the next two years in flood defense that will be the biggest single investment in flood defense ever.

But I think in the future again to invest even mawr in more natural ways off reducing flows, investing in hard flood defences.

I'm making sure that our buildings and infrastructure and our cities are resilient.

Too funny when it happens, that's the formula for success.