Catcliffe floods: Environment Agency failed to act, says resident

The Environment Agency was warned a South Yorkshire village faced flooding more than six hours before it issued an alert, a resident has said.

A volunteer flood warden in Catcliffe told the BBC he informed the agency on Friday evening that a flood plain by his house was swamped with water.

About 120 homes were flooded on Saturday after the River Rother burst its banks in the wake of Storm Babet.

The Environment Agency said it would "look at learnings for the future".

It is facing questions about why residents were not warned earlier they were at risk of flooding.

The warden, who lives on Old School Lane, said he called the agency at 20:30 BST on Friday to say the flood plain at the rear of their house was full with water.

The 76-year-old, who asked not to be named, told the BBC: "It was getting very close up to my house so I thought I better ring them up and find out how high this is going to get, because if it's going to get anything like 2007 we need to go round warning people.

"Once it starts creeping up the flood bank, I know there's a risk of flooding in Catcliffe."

The warden said staff in the agency's incident room were unable to provide any information but said they would ring him back.

"I'm still waiting for a phone call," he said.

Residents received flood warnings on their mobile phones at about 02:30 BST, by which time defences had been breached and water was flowing onto streets.

The warden said Catcliffe had been "let down" by the delay.

He added: "Why couldn't somebody in the Environment Agency tell me what height they expected it to get to?

"If we had known then, people could have had earlier warnings to shift their cars and that.

"I think something's gone wrong with the system."

Labour MP Sarah Champion has criticised the Environment Agency for the "unacceptable" delay in issuing a flood alert.

She told BBC Radio Sheffield some people had "lost everything" when their homes were swamped.

The Environment Agency said Catcliffe's flood defences were overtopped after "unprecedented" rain, with around a month's rain falling in 18 to 36 hours.

It said its teams had "worked round the clock to clear screens, remove debris and try to keep rivers flowing".

A spokesperson added: "After any incident such as this we will look at what actions were taken, based on the forecasts and intelligence we had, so we can look at learnings for the future.

"This will include looking at the trigger levels for issuing flood alerts and warnings."

On Wednesday, the government announced flooding victims could apply for cash grants of up to £500, as well as council tax exemptions of three years and funding towards repairs.

South Yorkshire Police said officers were carrying out high-visibility patrols in Catcliffe in response to fears of break-ins at empty homes.

However, the force sought to downplay concerns about a spike in burglaries since 250 properties were evacuated at the weekend.

Supt Andy Wright said: "We are aware of rumours on social media of multiple reports of thefts in the Catcliffe area following the floods and while we are investigating one report, we have not received any other confirmed reports of burglaries or thefts in the area.

"I want to reassure members of the public that, based on all the information we have, these rumours are simply not true."

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