Warnings not issued until six hours after homes started to flood, ignored sandbag requests, HGV drivers pushing floodwater into houses, failing sewage networks and blocked drains.
Homes flooded above the height of their letterboxes and windowsills, cars submerged and one life lost.
This is the story of Storm Babet’s impact on Derbyshire during the region’s wettest three-day period on record from October 18 to 21, 2023.
Derbyshire County Council commissioned an investigation into the cause, effect and impact of the Storm Babet flooding.
The storm caused internal flooding to 1,647 properties, including more than 400 homes in the Chesterfield area and more than 100 in Sandiacre and Long Eaton respectively.
Maureen Gilbert, aged 83, of Tapton Terrace, Chesterfield, was found dead in her flooded home, with an inquest into the causes ongoing.
The report found that the impact of the storm was almost entirely linked to river flooding from the Derwent, Don, Dove, Erewash, Rother and Trent – and their intertwining watercourses.
Numerous communities saw river levels rise to their highest-ever recorded heights, leading to flooding in some areas where homes had never previously flooded.
However, in numerous instances, including in Lilac Way, Shirland, drainage infrastructure which failed during the storm – directly and indirectly causing flooding – is actually the responsibility of the private homeowners around it.
This is referred to as “raparian” ownership and is linked to the legal deeds for the house, which can include drainage infrastructure running through their gardens and homeowners are often totally unaware of this responsibility.
In many cases these pieces of infrastructure were blocked by overgrown bushes and debris and in some cases were damaged.
The report also found that many properties that flooded during Storm Babet had previously been flooded numerous times, even despite the presence of some flood prevention infrastructure.
In Shirland the county council received more than 100 requests for sandbags but only 15 were responded to, including in Lilac Way, where six homes flooded.
The report says North East Derbyshire District Council were not able to respond to all requests for sandbags in time due to the quick onset of the flooding and the distance from the depot where sandbags were stored.
In Ridgeway, an Environment Agency flood warning was issued just 20 minutes before flooding of 16 homes began.
Meanwhile, lorry drivers are reported to have been driving through deep flood water on the A610 creating waves which increased the flooding into people’s homes.
In Duffield, the flood walls were overtopped causing the Village Court retirement complex to be evacuated and Duffield Meadows Primary School to be temporarily closed and its pupils taught elsewhere while flooded classrooms were repaired.
Numerous residents reported sewage networks being “overwhelmed”, lifting manhole covers out of the road, posing a risk to safety, but Severn Trent said it had not received reports of failures on its system.
Seven homes flooded in Holymoorside in Chesterfield. The area is not covered by an Environment Agency warning area.
In the Brampton area some homes which had requested sandbags could not be reached because they were already inaccessible.
Of the 26 homes that flooded in Tapton Terrace, including where Mrs Gilbert lost her life, all homes had flooded previously, including in 2019 and 2007.
In Ilkeston, Sandiacre and Long Eaton, numerous residents reported flood water rising up through the floors of their homes.
In Sandiacre, the Environment Agency’s flood warning was not issued until six hours after homes started to flood – with 129 homes flooding inside – having been issued at 11.12am on October 21.
It had issued a flood alert, detailing a lower risk of flooding, at 1.13am on October 19, two days before.
The report found that the majority of the Sandiacre homes that flooded had been built in the past 20 years and said all these homes had previously been flooded already.
This includes newly built homes in Station Road, Bradley Street, Rutland Grove, Westminster Avenue, Regent Street, Grasmere Street, Cross Street, Bridge Street, Draycott Road, Canal Street, Mark Street, and Bramble Court between the river and the canal.
In October 2021, Erewash Borough Council approved a further 53 homes to be built either side of Gas Street in the same affected area, with the site in Flood Zones two and three (three being the highest risk).
Sheila Blissett, a Cross Street resident, had told the council that the street had seen “one foot of flooding” in January 2021.
In Langley Mill, flooding was worsened by motorists driving through flood water, with flooding entering homes through toilets and leaving their property under water up to their radiators.
The county council says it will be setting up a “Derbyshire Flood Risk Partnership” to “improve the planning, prioritisation and coordination of flood risk management across the whole of Derbyshire”.
It says: “It is likely that due to climate change, intense storm events such as Storm Babet will become more frequent. Communities need to become more resilient and prepared for flooding, and although Derbyshire County Council, the Environment Agency and other risk management authorities will always be there to support, plan and mitigate the impacts of any future flooding events, it is important that communities are also better prepared to deal with any such events.”
A county council report summarises: “Increasing the capacity, resources and funding, not only for the council, but other agencies, is critical.
“This will ensure Derbyshire is not only fully prepared for the next event, but is able to recover more quickly, the impact to properties will be reduced, and the effect this can have on Derbyshire residents’ lives will also be mitigated.”
The Environment Agency said: “We know the devastating impact that flooding can have on communities and individuals and our thoughts go out to all those who have been impacted.
“Since October 2023, the Environment Agency has taken action to increase the accuracy and resilience of the Flood Warning Service in the county by looking at individual river gauges which provide the information to trigger flood warnings.
“79 flood warnings have been validated, by which we mean to ascertain with the data from Storm Babet whether the flood warning performed as was expected, or whether improvement could be made.
“This has led to 15 flood warnings seeing changes to the levels at which they are issued by our duty officers.
“Our climate is changing, and we are experiencing more extreme weather such as Storm Babet. We will continue to work with partners to help improve the resilience of communities within Derbyshire to flooding and the challenges of a changing climate.”
