Photo Lizzie Orme
Late 2015 and early 2016 saw some of the worst flooding the UK has ever seen. In fact, December 2015 was one of the wettest for over a century. Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank caused severe flood damage to 16,000 homes across Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria and parts of Scotland. We didn’t have to wait long for Storm Katie to wreak havoc too. As an aside, storms are now given boys’ and girls’ names after the Met Office decided that personal names would raise public awareness about the imminent threat of an approaching storm and we would prepare better in the knowledge that a named stormed would soon be with us. Bizarrely, research shows that more people are injured during storms named after girls than boys because we feel that girls’ names are friendlier and we therefore assume that a ‘female storm’ is less threatening. We are less prepared and more people are hurt. Surely then, if this is the case, it would be so much better if all storms were named after evil dictators! The fear of death would then be driven into us. Storm names, if you’re still interested, are announced in alphabetical order so at the time of writing Storm Lawrence is up next. I digress.
Storm damage is a very serious issue and unfortunately it is becoming far too common. This isn’t just about the damage to property, it can ruin the lives of so many people through disruption, loss of personal belongings, drawn-out insurance claims, potential homelessness for months, if not years, as well as the frightening possibility of loss of life.