\n<\/p>\n
Since medieval monks started draining and managing the Somerset Levels, humans have struggled to live and work alongside water.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment it feels like a losing battle,\u201d said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority. \u201cIntense rainfall is hitting us more often because of climate change. It may be that in the next 50 years, perhaps in the next 20, some homes around here will have to be abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanton spoke to the Guardian at Northmoor pumping station near Bridgwater as six giant temporary pumps fired six tons of flood water a second off the saturated moors into the River Parrett.<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u2018Intense rainfall is hitting us more often,\u2019 said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The emergency pumps had been craned into position to back up the permanent ones after Storm Chandra, in a desperate attempt to stop homes in nearby villages such as Moorland and Fordgate from flooding.<\/p>\n The two communities hit the headlines around the world when they were inundated in 2014. Millions of pounds was invested in trying to keep water at bay, but by mid-afternoon on Thursday the level at a nearby monitoring point was at 7.76 metres (nearly 25ft 6in). Flooding of property is possible when it goes above 6.6 metres.<\/p>\n With yet another severe Met Office weather warning for rain in force on Thursday afternoon and evening, the fear was growing that water would once again reach homes.<\/p>\n <\/span>Diggers move earth to protect a home near Moorland.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Julian Taylor, who lives in Fordgate, had moved many of his belongings upstairs. \u201cI suspect we\u2019re going to have to evacuate,\u201d he said. \u201cThe water is advancing even faster than in 2014. I don\u2019t know where we\u2019ll go. We\u2019ve been pressing them for weeks to get more pumps in.\u201d<\/p>\n On the edge of Moorland, the Notaro family, who are well-known local builders, were busy moving earth and bringing in stone to build a bund \u2013 an embankment \u2013 around their home. They did the same in 2014 to keep the water away.<\/p>\n The Moorland village hall was turned into something of an emergency meeting point. An Environment Agency (EA) incident command unit and a mobile police station were parked outside.<\/p>\n <\/span>Local people in Moorland have praised individual Environment Agency staff and their efforts. <\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Throughout the day on Thursday villagers visited, spoke to EA staff and comforted one another. Some were in tears. \u201cI\u2019ve stopped looking at the media and at the EA readings on the website,\u201d said one Moorland resident, who asked not to be named. \u201cIt\u2019s just too stressful for me. I\u2019m just keeping my head down and hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n Local people praise the individual EA staff who work the pumps trying to keep their homes clear of water. They are also grateful that the Parrett is being cleared of silt \u2013 on Thursday, a small Dutch dredger was engaged in a routine chug up and down the river. But they criticise the body\u2019s chief and the UK government for not doing more.<\/p>\n <\/span>A dredger clearing the River Parret of silt.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The Flooding on the Levels Action Group (Flag) warned on Thursday that residents faced another \u201ccatastrophic\u201d flood. It accused the EA of not being \u201cagile\u201d enough as Chandra headed towards the south-west of England, arguing the temporary pumps should have been moved in sooner.<\/p>\n The group also called for Northmoor pumping station to be upgraded so it was not necessary to bring in extra pumps every time there was a serious storm.<\/p>\n Jim Flory, the EA environment manager for Wessex, denied the reaction had been slow. \u201cWe think that our response has been ahead of the curve,\u201d he said. Additional pumps had been put in even before agreed \u201ctrigger points\u201d for them had been reached.<\/p>\n Three storms \u2013 Goretti, Ingrid and now Chandra \u2013 have battered the south-west of England this year. Extreme rainfall is becoming more common and more intense in many parts of the world because of human-caused climate breakdown.<\/p>\n <\/span>Some Moorland residents fear they will have to evacuate. <\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Flory said parts of south-west England were seeing record-breaking rainfall. At a rain gauge in nearby Taunton last week, the wettest seven-day period (20-26 January) was recorded for at least 30 years. The catchment area for the Parrett and Tone rivers has received 207% of the long-term average January rainfall.<\/p>\n The EA and UK government say many millions has been invested into raising roads, improving drainage and boosting pumping capacity.<\/p>\n The floods minister, Emma Hardy, said: \u201cFlooding is devastating and my thoughts are with the people affected. I am in regular contact with the Environment Agency on their response to the ongoing flooding who, alongside local authorities and the emergency services, are already taking action to keep communities safe. I urge residents to follow local advice over the next few days to ensure they stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since medieval monks started draining and managing the Somerset Levels, humans have struggled to live and work alongside water. \u201cAt the moment it feels like a losing battle,\u201d said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority. \u201cIntense rainfall is hitting us more often because of climate change. It may be that in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[820,3919,2171,586,3546,4603],"class_list":{"0":"post-43161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-battle","9":"tag-feels","10":"tag-fight","11":"tag-flooding","12":"tag-losing","13":"tag-somerset"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}