Flash flooding: May floods highlight the continuing issues

Flash floods – convective rain – is becoming a much more regular, normal occurrence. You’ll see headlines of the type ‘June’s rainfall falls in an hour’ much more routinely.

Flash flooding raises considerable difficulties because of the highly localised nature of the flooding and the sheer volumes of water and the speed of the flood. One of the difficulties is when the same area floods; in May the same area of Birmingham flooded for the 3^rd time in 9 years.

BBC ‘Clean-up begins in Birmingham after flash flooding

29 May 2018

‘Nobody cares’ about impact of Birmingham floods Residents have questioned why more was not done to protect their homes after they were flooded for the third time in nine years.

Parts of Birmingham saw more than a month’s rainfall in an hour on Sunday. Houses in Selly Oak and Selly Park were flooded, with waist-high water reported in one street and cars submerged. The Environment Agency, which confirmed a flood defence scheme for the area has been delayed, said surface water in the drains caused the problems.

Birmingham flooding: What went wrong?

In Sir John’s Road, Selly Park, homes were flooded and cars were under water, while wheelie bins floated down the road.

The street last flooded in June 2016 which affected more than 100 houses and some people had to leave their homes.You may also be interested in:

Karina Thompson said: “The dirt and mess and the aggravation from the insurance company… to be quite honest, it is extremely upsetting and this shouldn’t have happened. It happened two years ago and people could have protected us.”

Joe Cuthbertson, from the agency, said: “A lot of Environment Agency schemes protect homes and businesses from river flooding. “What we have seen in these areas of Birmingham over the weekend has been surface water flooding.” The deputy leader of Birmingham City Council, Brigid Jones, added the authority will be looking at what happened and what could be done better.’