Flooding caused by Storm Chandra has hammered huge swathes of the UK with families across the country desperately left to pick up the pieces of their lives
A dad has been left heart-broken after his home was destroyed by floodwater from Storm Chandra.
But Billy Vernon, 39, fears the worse is yet to come with a new weather warning issued. He lost all of his furniture, treasured belongings and even family pets as waist-high floodwater swept into his four-bedroom rented property in the early hours of yesterday morning.
His family in Axminster, Devon, close to the River Axe are continuing to pump water out of the house and salvage whatever they can. But just as they’ve managed to get rid of most of the floodwater, fresh showers are coming in ahead of a yellow weather warning – sparking fears the home could be swamped all over again. For now he is sheltering upstairs with his two sons, said: “It will be a sleepless night.
READ MORE: Storm Chandra flood warning as Brits urged ‘evacuate as soon as possible’READ MORE: Somerset Council’s urgent warning as it declares major incident amid Storm Chandra
“I’m still trying to get on top of it – and I know that it could happen again in 24 hours.”
As the threat of more rain leaves Billy on edge, the clean-up has revealed the true scale of devastation. He said: “All my furniture downstairs is destroyed, including two TVs, table and chairs, all of the conservatory furniture and everything in my kids’ playroom.
“The whole kitchen will have to come out. My tools were inside and they are all destroyed now. It stinks throughout the house. The hardest part for me is seeing my kids’ Christmas presents destroyed.”
Billy, who recently lost his mother, added: “Baby pictures are damaged – and so are my mum’s pictures.”
He said that five of his chickens and four ducks were found dead in the garden after the flooding.
Billy said: “We’ve just moved all of the furniture outside to dry, but it has started raining now, so it’s just getting more and more wet. All we can do is put our flood barriers back in place and hope the water doesn’t come over the back wall.”
Billy and his 17-year-old and 14-year-old sons are currently living upstairs with only basic appliances, including a fridge donated by a charity.
Outside, the aftermath is still visible. Billy said: “My ladders are all floating in the river.”
Areas of Somerset of also been hammered by flooding. Lesley and John Parker, who live in the village of Burrowbridge, Somerset, have had to install flood defences around their property in the hopes of holding back the water.
They fear the water will come “straight up through the floor”.
Storm Chandra brought weather warnings, disruption and flooding across parts of the UK on Tuesday, with Somerset Council declaring a major incident that evening.
A key route through Burrowbridge has been shut due to flooding, and the Environment Agency has nearby pumps running at “full capacity” to drain water away.
But the heavy rainfall forecast on Thursday has spurred the Parkers and their neighbours to prepare their homes for the worst. Mr and Mrs Parker said the conditions are the scariest they have seen since their home was devastated by flooding in 2014, when 3ft of water inside the house forced them to evacuate.
The couple said they have been mostly “left to (their) own devices”, and believe the Environment Agency has done “too little too late” to save their home of 14 years.
Mr Parker said: “The thing was, in 2014, the whole process was much slower, it was almost like slow motion. Whereas this has happened so fast that nothing has actually been set up yet.”
Despite covering the doors and vents with sandbags, the couple said the water came straight up through the floor during the last serious flood. Mr Parker added: “The water came in one afternoon, we thought we might survive, went to bed and got up in the morning and there was a foot or so of water in the ground floor.
“The insurance company arranged a hotel, and we went to the hotel and stayed there for a couple of weeks. When the water had gone, which was five weeks after it came in, we came back… We lived in a caravan on the drive from the middle of March to November.”
On Wednesday, the couple installed a flood barrier provided by their local rotary club and stuffed sandbags outside the entrances to their home.
Mrs Parker said: “There’s been a few sort of hairy moments, but at the moment… with the forecast, the rate and rise of the water is the quickest it’s ever been. We’ve had a few scares, but this is probably the scariest, and I was told on Monday I would be under water today.”
Somerset Council said an estimated 50 properties had been affected by flooding across Ilminster, West Coker, Taunton, Mudford and West Camel in the wake of Storm Chandra.
A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Our incident response has been ahead of the curve – not behind it. Staff have been working hard 24/7 to protect people and property.
“Additional pumps have been set up ahead of agreed timing and we pumped down water levels ahead of Storm Ingrid to mitigate its impact. We can’t pump water into already full rivers. But as soon as they drop we are prepared to maximise that window of opportunity.”
The Environment Agency said a rain gauge in Fulwood, Somerset, had recorded the wettest seven-day period in at least 30 years last week.
