'The roads were full of tractors taking people home'

On 20 October 2023, Storm Babet tore its way through Suffolk and caused up to 80mm of rain to fall in just a few hours.

It was the county’s wettest October day since records began and the storm was declared a major incident after more than 750 homes and businesses were affected by flooding, according to Suffolk County Council.

The village of Debenham and the town of Framlingham in Suffolk would bear the brunt of the storm, with thousands of people finding themselves stranded.

One year on from the storm, the BBC looks back on how convoys of tractors came to the rescue of school students and the patients and staff at a GP surgery.

Anastasia, 15, moved to the UK from Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion. She arrived in May 2022 with her mother and settled in Suffolk.

On 20 October Anastasia started her day as normal as a pupil at Debenham High School, and even joked with her friends about the "English rain” falling outside.

Later she would recall “having never seen anything like this in her entire life”.

The high school sits in an elevated position above Debenham High Street so did not flood itself, but students were unable to get home.

Anastasia said: "After a while teachers called us in and said it was really starting to flood.

"People started to get picked up by parents and we started to panic. I live quite far away and there is quite a lot of difficulty to get there.

"I spoke to my mum and she said they would sort it out. They tried to take us by bus to my village but it stopped. The bus turned around and took the pupils back to school.

"I saw people with a boat and I thought 'wow that was crazy' and 'I can’t believe what’s going on'."

Later in the evening, Anastasia saw a line of tractors at the school.

“I couldn’t believe it and I thought I need to catch a tractor and get home," she added.

“When I was being driven home I could see lots of cars flooded to their roofs. Some times the tractor couldn’t get past the water, it was like a river, it was serious."

Ele Williamson, 27, works on her family farm between Eye and Debenham.

She recalled receiving a call from a doctor's surgery in Debenham at about 11:00 BST, who asked her to bring a tractor to help them evacuate.

She said that when she got to the scene she realised, “it wasn’t just going to be a couple of inches of water, it was feet, metres”.

"The amount of water and how quickly it was moving, it wasn’t just a case of getting people home, it was a dangerous place to be," she said.

"The devastation of people's houses wasn’t nice to see and it all happened so quickly.”

Over the course of the 12-hour rescue mission, many other farmers joined her and the roads became “full of tractors trying to get people home and out of the water”.

After freeing a fire engine, which had got stuck in a ditch close to the village, Ms Williamson later turned her efforts towards helping to get children home from Debenham High School.

"They were glad to get home and their parents were glad to see them arrive home, too," she said.

"[I do not think I will] ever get over the shock of seeing the water coming into Debenham and just how far the water went on for.

"You couldn’t see dry land on the road, it was coming up the tractor tyres and I just wasn’t anticipating that at all."

Simon Martin has been working at Debenham High School since 2010 and became its head teacher in 2020.

Mr Martin has the welfare of 700 pupils to consider every day and 20 October was no different.

He recalled that after he checked water levels and forecasts he decided to contact parents to say the school was going to shut.

Buses were asked to come in and collect the students, but within an hour they could not drive on the roads.

He said: “One bus did get through and when they opened up the door of the bus, water came pouring out, so we knew it wasn’t safe to take the children out."

"A few parents managed to get through, but those arriving at the door had been waist deep in water and were soaked through."

Pupils, who were safe and warm inside, were arranged in year groups and put into classrooms.

They were settling down for an overnight stay at school when, at about 22:00 BST, Suffolk’s Lowland Search and Rescue team was diverted to the school.

Farmers in a convoy of tractors began to arrive to take the children home.

Mr Martin said: “In the moment you don’t think about what’s happening - we had to sort logistics and contact parents, as there were safeguarding issues putting children in tractors in the middle of the night.

"It wasn’t until it stopped at about 03:00, when you have a coffee and you think, goodness that was a very interesting and unusual evening.”

All the stranded pupils got home safely and only four members of staff, including Mr Martin, had to stay at the school overnight.

In Framlingham, just nine miles (14km) from Debenham, another emergency was unfolding.

The River Ore had burst its banks and water was rushing down Riverside and Station Road, flooding businesses and homes.

Amy Goulding, a mother-of-two, was an operations assistant at Fairweather Law, which is based in the Riverside area of the town.

She said: "The river was rising rather quickly and so we put the flood boards up but the river burst its banks and we had to evacuate everyone. It was all very hectic.”

Mrs Goulding could not access her car as it was cut off by the floodwater.

She added: “I have two children - one was able to walk safely to a friend's house but I have another one who was stuck at school in Earl Soham, which was really flooded. Luckily a friend with a tractor went and got him for me.

"It was a scary time as my husband is a firefighter and he was out in the fire engine for 14 hours straight, I had two children in two different places, plus I was trying to evacuate two offices. It was a very busy hectic day.”

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