Residents ‘suffering’ as homes evacuated in major incident in Nottinghamshire

Residents have been evacuated from homes after flooding in Nottinghamshire led to a major incident being declared.

The River Trent has risen to near-record levels following Storm Henk on Thursday, with more wet weather expected.

Some residents in Radcliffe-on-Trent have had to be evacuated from their homes near the river’s edge, with Nottinghamshire County Council telling homeowners near the waterway to expect flooding.

Councillor Roger Upton, a Nottinghamshire County and Rushcliffe Borough councillor for Radcliffe-on-Trent, said he had never seen flooding so bad since moving to the area in the 1970s.

It was bad in 1977, and it was bad in 2000, and in my opinion, this is the worst I've seen in those years.

He said: “I’ve lived in Radcliffe since 1975, and I’ve regularly come down here over the years and seen various floodings. It was bad in 1977, and it was bad in 2000, and in my opinion, this is the worst I’ve seen in those years.

“It’s very disruptive to the local community here.

“We have managed to evacuate some residents that live on the river bank of the Trent, some locally but the majority to Gamston, where the borough council has agreed to a hotel behind a pub there, so that’s good.

“It is worrying. All the water in the River Trent, from Staffordshire, Derbyshire, the River Dove, the River Soar, all the rivers, it all comes through here eventually and it’s that time lag. When the rain stops, it takes days for it to come through here.

“I share concerns with a lot of people about global climate change, and I know there’s great debate about that.

“But personally, I think we, as a global family, have got to do something about climate change, because these storms are coming more often and are more severe.

“I think we’ve got to really assess the infrastructure, such as rivers, streams and drains. We need to take stock of that.”

Mr Upton said that he had been told by the Environment Agency that the river was set to peak at around 6pm on Thursday.

Meanwhile, residents had been moved to a nearby hotel, with pets accommodated temporarily by the RSPCA.

It follows Nottinghamshire County Council announcing on Thursday that a major incident had been declared by the Nottinghamshire and Nottingham Local Resilience Forum along the River Trent.

It said that forecasts suggested that the Trent could come close to the highest levels on record since 2000, with key tributaries, including the River Derwent, the River Soar and the River Dove, having already reached their peaks.

Residents were urged not to travel through floodwater, to stay away from swollen waterways and to prepare for the event of evacuation, with multiple roads closed in the county.

Several homes on the river’s edge in Summer Way, Radcliffe-on-Trent, have flooded, with residents evacuated on Thursday and power shut off.

Ellen Walker, a resident in Summer Way, said it was a “tight-knit” community, although her property, which she only moved into in late October last year, is not expected to flood.

The saddest part about it is, you know they are suffering, but there's nothing you can do. If the flood comes in, it's going to come in and there's no way anybody can stop it

She said: “We’ve been up most of the night because our vehicles were parked just at the borderline of where the flood was, and we had to move them overnight.

“It’s highly unlikely we will flood, so I think everybody’s been more sorry for the people over the road because they have had it so hard.

“The saddest part about it is, you know they are suffering, but there’s nothing you can do. If the flood comes in, it’s going to come in and there’s no way anybody can stop it.

“It’s nature but then again, they should not have been built there.”

As of Thursday evening, more than 220 flood warnings, where flooding is expected, remain in place across England, while almost 300 flood alerts, where flooding is possible, are also in place.

A yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office for rain across the south, with rail services warning passengers of delays and cancellations due to the severe conditions.

It comes just days after disruption caused by strong winds and rain from Storm Henk, which has left the ground saturated and more prone to flooding, according to forecasters.