Catcliffe residents 'angry' at Storm Babet flood warning 'delay'

The Environment Agency has been criticised for "unacceptable" delays in issuing flood alerts in part of South Yorkshire during Storm Babet.

Labour MP Sarah Champion said residents of Catcliffe in Rotherham had received no warning before the River Rother burst its banks.

She said some people "lost everything" when 120 homes were swamped by water after heavy rain during Friday's storm.

The Environment Agency said the amount of rainfall had been "unprecedented".

About 250 properties in Catcliffe and Treeton were evacuated early on Saturday morning after parts of Yorkshire received double the average monthly rainfall in a period of between 24-36 hours.

Ms Champion, the MP for Rotherham, said there was a "big question" about why residents had not been notified earlier about the risk.

She told BBC Radio Sheffield: "The amazing fire service went round at 4am and 5am literally knocking on doors, but why weren't we warned the day before?"

The MP said roads in Catcliffe were already flooded on Friday, "which is like the first indicator for us".

She added there were "a lot of people who have literally lost everything".

Eric Burns, whose house in California Drive was flooded, said he chose to stay at his home because he did not "have enough time to sort enough stuff out".

Mr Burns, whose home was also swamped during flooding which devastated Catcliffe in 2007, said: "The last time there were a few break-ins and I didn't really feel it was safe to leave it this time."

He said felt "very angry" and "shocked" at "the speed of it all".

"I didn't feel as if there was enough warning," he added.

Garry Marsh, vice-chair of Catcliffe Parish Council and a volunteer flood warden, said the Environment Agency had issued no warnings for the area until late on Friday night.

"By that time, it's getting a little bit late for people to take action," he added.

Mr Marsh said during similar heavy rain in 2019, "we were out advising people, reassuring people, passing on information I was getting from the Environment Agency".

"We didn't get any of that this time. There were no warnings given out," added the councillor, whose own home was flooded on Saturday.

Stewart Mounsey, the Environment Agency's area director for Yorkshire, said it was "always quite difficult" to predict the volume and intensity of rain a storm would bring.

"If a catchment has a lot of intense rain, the flooding can onset really quickly," he said.

He added that Catcliffe had seen more rainfall during Storm Babet than in previous incidents in 2007 and 2019.

Mr Mounsey said the agency's response team and local councils "did their very best to warn people, evacuate them as necessary, as timely as we could".

He added the agency wanted to hear from the public if they did not receive flood warnings and could look to improve its processes in the future.

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