Recovery measures enforced following flood in Leamington Spa

Warwick, Leamington Spa and Coventry have been prone to recent flooding with widespread surface water affecting multiple areas of Warwickshire.

Warwick District Council (WDC) have since put in place recovery measures for flood victims in the Leamington area affected by the storm which has been labelled Storm Henk. Up to 1ft of water had entered residential properties according to residents in the broader Midlands area affected by the storm.

On the previous Thursday, more than 550 flood warnings and alerts were issued about the coming storm. The Environment Agency also stated that a further 450 properties were flooded in the days following the flood warning.

“Fire and rescue service and Police worked tirelessly around the clock.”

Jim Sinnott, WDC leisure councillor

As a result of the flooding, the council’s “Fire and rescue service and Police worked tirelessly around the clock.” This is according to the WDC’s leisure councillor Jim Sinnott. He also stated that their swift response “to a rapidly evolving incident” made all the difference.

Members of the Warwickshire Resilience Forum are in the process of contacting households, commercial premises and landowners known to have been affected by flooding to ensure they are aware of the services and assistance available to them.

Several places in the local area were affected by adverse weather including the Leamington Art Gallery and Museum which suspended being open for a few days as a precautionary measure.

Stefan Laeger, a flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, also stated that “significant surface water and river flooding” are possible “due to heavy localised rainfall falling on saturated catchments”.

Further in Southern England as well in the West Country people were made to evacuate their homes. However, unlike other areas in the UK, the river levels in Warwick district did not breach their flood defences.

Both people in the Warwickshire and beyond are now picking up the pieces from Storm Henk, the latest in a series of storms that are the source of both environmental damage and human cost to rural areas of the UK.