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Traumatised kids scared of rain after storm floods

Steffan Messenger
BBC Wales Environment Correspondent
BBC Sharon Elward, local organiser for Pontypridd foodbank stares at the camera. She is standing in front of the river Taff in Pontypridd, wearing a green hoody. Metal railings can be seen behind her, and beyond them the river. BBC
Sharon Elward of Pontypridd Foodbank says residents felt there was not enough warning before Storm Bert

Children in some flood-hit communities are so frightened when it rains that their parents are closing the curtains and turning up the TV, according to a community worker.

Sharon Elward, organiser for the Pontypridd Foodbank, said repeated flooding in recent years had led to "skyrocketing" mental health issues locally.

"How can you physically keep living like that? Moving furniture and cabinets upstairs whenever there's a warning... it's just not realistic," she said.

The Senedd's environment committee met on Thursday to hear from agencies involved in responding to Storm Bert and Storm Darragh, both of which caused widespread flooding in November and December 2024.

Storm Bert hit Rhondda Cynon Taf particularly hard, flooding about 438 properties and causing £8m of damage to infrastructure.

The county was still recovering from Storm Dennis in 2020, when homes and businesses bore the brunt of record-breaking rainfall.

Getty Images A man bails water out of a business in Pontypridd. There is rainwater in the street, amongst sandbags.Getty Images
Storm Bert caused hundreds of homes and business in Rhondda Cynon Taf to be flooded

Seeing the streets of Pontypridd flooded once again had "a really huge impact on people", said Ms Elward, whose foodbank offers space for people whose homes and businesses have been flooded to come together.

"They can't carry on living in this kind of situation," she said, adding that it was also "a massive driver" of economic hardship.

People are watching the river levels "all the time" and parents were having to "shut their curtains and turn the TV up a bit louder" so their "children's PTSD symptoms don't come back" when it rains, she said.

"We've heard from people who have felt so bad they don't want to be here," she added.

Getty Images A blue Ford Mondeo car submerged in water on Sion Street on November 24, 2024 in Pontypridd, WalesGetty Images
Local residents and Rhondda Cynon Taf's council's leader questioned whether enough warning was given ahead of Storm Bert

Ms Elward said drop-in sessions organised by the foodbank in areas worst affected by the floods had been "really well attended".

"Their voices are not being heard - they are being thrown from pillar to post around all the different organisations but nobody is actually listening to what is happening to them," she said.

"We know there has been a lot of money spent, but we are still here five years on, so was it spent wisely?"

Colin Fenn stands in front of his house in Pontypridd - weather a black flat cap and a red raincoat. A black floodgate across his front door is visible in the background.
Pontypridd resident Colin Fenn said every time it rains he looks out of his window at the river

Colin Fenn, 83, has seen his Pontypridd home flood twice in recent years.

"You have to strip everything out because it's river water, it's contaminated, so everything that's on the floor, carpets, cupboards, units, has got to go," he explained.

"It's heart-breaking because you just stand there, trying desperately to stop the water coming in... but it's unstoppable.

"The worst thing of all is the trauma, the mental effect.

"Waiting, wondering if it's going to get flooded again."

'No warning'

Further up the Rhondda valley in Porth, the Rheola Hotel has flooded three times in five years.

The impact of Storm Bert was particularly devastating, according to former manager John Morgan, because he claimed there had been "no warning".

Staff arrived in the morning to see "water 2ft (0.6m) deep right throughout the pub".

"A couple of the staff finished just after because of the stress of the floods at the time, it's not very pleasant for any of them," he said.

The three floods cost the business up to £80,000 in damage to stock, lost trade and repairs, he added.

The pub was now investing in its own private flood defences.

PA Firefighters pumping flood waters on Sion Street, Pontypridd, Wales.PA
Rhondda Cynon Taf council says it received nearly 600 calls from residents reporting issues of flooding during Storm Bert

There was much debate in the wake of Storm Bert about how much warning was provided by the Met Office and Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

Jeremy Parr, head of flood and incident risk management at NRW said the agency's staff worked "day in day out to do our best to manage the risks from flooding".

In the lead up to storm Bert it had warned "significant flooding was possible across Wales", urging people to "be prepared".

"River levels in the south Wales valleys can rise extremely rapidly... and flood warnings could be issued at very short notice," he explained.

However following a review, the organisation had now "reduced the trigger level at which warnings were issued on the River Taff at Pontypridd".

In its submission to the Senedd's environment committee, Rhondda Cynon Taf council said it was looking at "how we can refine the council's own internal warning systems and relevant protocols following what was considered to be late warnings" from both organisations.

The council said it had spent more than £100m since Storm Dennis on flood protection.

This "succeeded in reducing the risk of flooding to an estimated 2,269 properties during Storm Bert", a council spokesperson said, adding that there was a "real need for others - be they private landowners or other organisations - to match our urgency and ambitions".

Welsh Water staff in orange jackets load cars with bottled water in a supermarket car park in Treorchy.
Thousands of people were told to boil their tap water after flooding at a water treatment works above Treherbert, Rhondda Cynon Taf during Storm Bert

Wales' National Infrastructure Commission, which advises the government, has also written to the committee after it carried out a year-long study into flood resilience.

Chairman David Clubb said they found communities were often "not sufficiently engaged" in decisions around flood risk by the various agencies involved and felt as if "things were being done to them".

One of the body's recommendations was to create a new flooding commissioner role for Wales to help coordinate efforts and lead on communication.

"We feel that there's a lot that can be done in trying to help different organisations work together," he said.

David Clubb, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales. Sat in the BBC's Cardiff headquarters, looking at the camera wearing a light grey jumper.
David Clubb of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales says more coordination was needed between the various agencies involved in flood response

A Welsh government spokesperson said it had maintained "a record level of funding of £75m for our flood programme this year which will protect more than 45,000 homes".

They said it was "so important that we continue to learn lessons from flooding" and that after Storm Bert "we immediately organised a meeting of first responders, risk management authorities and other agencies".

"We are also looking at whether we can use National Flood Forum services more widely."

A Met Office spokesman said they "welcome the opportunity to discuss the impact of recent storms at the Senedd Environment Committee's session".

"We take our responsibility to warn for severe weather in the UK very seriously and will always evolve and work even more closely with our partners to ensure we all deliver the best information to keep people safe.

"Our thoughts are with those who were affected by the impacts caused by the recent winter storms."

If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article, BBC Action Line has put together a list of organisations which can help.