10 January 2024 , 20:56
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A pensioner was stranded at home on her 94th birthday yesterday as floodwater surrounded her bungalow and filled her back garden with sewage.
Pensioner Audrey Elliott said she should have been out celebrating with her nephew, visiting from Las Vegas. Instead, like others living close to the River Thames in the Berkshire village of Wraysbury, she was hoping for the waters to recede following a deluge from Storm Henk last week.
Audrey said: “My bungalow is completely surrounded. It is all the way around so I can’t get out. Sewage has also unfortunately flooded the back garden.” Having lived in the bungalow for the last 60 years, she has lived through flooding before.
Last week’s intense rainfall poured into Britain’s rivers, causing some to burst their banks spectacularly. Wraysbury flooded in 2003, and in 2014 it was the centre of one the UK’s worst winter storms in two decades as it faced 38 evacuations, food shortages, bubbling sewage and power cuts.
Audrey Elliot has been stranded in her home (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)The village now has volunteer flood wardens who make sure residents are prepared – as they were this time. Dave Clark stood behind his front door flood barrier that keeps out the dirty water filling his driveway.
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In 2014 a foot of water got into his home destroying furniture and causing structural damage. In 2003 his carpets were ruined. Dave, 69, who is retired, said: “As soon as I heard the waters were rising this time I moved all my furniture up onto boxes, moved my vehicles and barricaded my front door.
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“The difference was communication from Wraysbury flood team which meant I could prepare. In 2003, the water just appeared overnight.” Dave is concerned about climate change, with Henk the eighth storm named by the Met Office since September 1 . He added: “If more storms bring more rain, I’m worried.”
Nada Farhoud visited the stranded OAP in her home (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Locals wading the village’s streets agree the Jubilee River flood relief scheme, which runs from Maidenhead to Windsor, saved wealthier enclaves upstream and left others, like Wraysbury, to sink or swim. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology said the period from July to December 2023 was the UK’s wettest on record.
Hydrologist Hannah Cloke said: “The flood warning map is lit up like a Christmas tree.” Linda Speight, a hydrometeorologist of Oxford University, said: “A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture so rainfall is heavier and more likely to lead to flooding. Climate change is causing warmer, wetter winters. We will unfortunately experience more like this one.”