well for communities here in South Wales
which have been devastated by storm
Dennis there was more heavy rain today
and in some areas more flooding to go
with it at least a thousand properties
across Wales have now been affected by
the severe weather that's also left
roads bridges and other infrastructure
needing repairs or behind me here in
point deep read one of the streets that
saw some of the most serious damage and
it's a picture repeated of course across
South Wales and indeed other areas of
Wales alot home affairs correspondent
Andy Davis is with me now Andy I've only
been really wandering around here for
the last two or three hours you've been
here what two or three days what are you
finding on the streets here in this area
well we have been to quite a few places
and it is a pretty bleak picture out
there and what really strikes you is
just how many small communities have
been affected by this such as the
geography of the valleys here and the
task facing the council right now is
mammoth they've just put out a statement
this evening saying they've got vehicles
damaged bridges that they have to repair
they've got that to contend with they've
also got hundreds of families they need
to find accommodation if they haven't
done so already they're providing
immediate hardship payments to each
household of five hundred pounds and
there is a huge amount of hardship out
there that we've encountered there is
real desperation on the part of some
people right now Pleasant Street Petra
in the Rhondda Valley in the midst of
recovering from Sunday's flood and this
morning it happens all over again
they've lost absolutely everything and I
don't even know where we search for the
money from last night they were
searching for answers in this questions
for other agencies perhaps but this is
one cancel among others staggering is
how he describes the scale of the damage
here
there are crisis meetings and village
halls and day centers across these
valleys imported preview' joined some of
the army of volunteers now making up
food parcels stacking boxes of cleaning
products and children's clothes and it's
where we meet Kylie Robinson her friend
exhausted frightened and overwhelmed
while all my kids toys there's nothing
like having your children coping my L
gotta shut down completely one toke my
second youngest you just waking up and
make news in Rome for Conan tap alone
it's estimated around a thousand homes
and businesses were flooded
you think livelihoods are at risk
hundreds i briefed the First Minister's
Office yes in the Welsh government we
think that Pross we as many as three to
four hundred jobs a country at risk on
one estate alone in a forest area with
not guru true poorest industrial state
was almost wiped out and if you needed
any further illustration of just how
much pressure this council is under
right now have a look at that
mountainside another land slip
discovered just above the council
headquarters not on the scale is the one
in Tyler's town on Sunday but the Welsh
government now wants Westminster
involved in risk assessing other former
Collier a spoil tips and if some streets
get the political focus the Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn was in South Wales
today others feel forgotten like here in
the cunnin Valley by the clutter where
the clock stopped at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday
and the flood marks reached nearly
six-foot leaving this woman's disabled
sister dragging herself up the stairs to
flee the flood and out of this doorway
another neighbor having to swim to
safety what was the first thing you
noticed when you when you got back in
here the horrific smell the sewage and
the the horrible smell and the thick
black sludge Rebecca Chadwick said it
was three days before a council official
came to offer support he came into the
house and he said you're in a bit better
condition than anybody else
and I said yeah because for two days
solid
I have had my friends from school
because I'm a teacher in Cardiff they
have been up and supported me and I
wouldn't have done it without them you
know I've got no help top my insurance
I pay fillings and contents insurance
I've informed them that I live next door
to a stream and they won't pay up
because it was storm related one person
came down and she said to me she said
she's no daughter she says he's 80
pounds you cuz I know you've got nothing
I'm a proud person than people coming up
to me giving me money I never thought in
a million years that I'd be able to do
that the Welsh government which held an
emergency summit yesterday is providing
ten million pounds of initial funding
and calling on the Treasury for more but
of course it's not always about homes
and businesses in fam Braddock it's
about the hobby which Andrew Gayle the
plumber spent years nurturing for his
sons Stan Bernie Shaw under the wrestler
his lovingly reared sixty strong
prize-winning ducks and chickens know
nearly all of them gone it's just
devastating they say it's a calling eh
and things up and a neighbor went to see
things like this is it is heartbreaking
especially for the children and the time
and effort we put in everybody an
allotment she's gone he's gone she's
gone she's still here at least we got
the photographs and the memories army
for the shows and everything else and we
rebuild with me slowly yeah and so the
exhausting business of rebuilding begins
for so many communities now struggling
amidst the wreckage of that brutal
weekend storm
well Andy stays with me I'm one thing
just in my few hours here Andy yes
you're talking to people about floods
but they very quickly weave in the fact
that the the industry has long since
moved on they talk about austerity I
guess it's easy to see why people feel
that if they have a voice it's not heard
we on these valleys perhaps in the way
that it should
well I think in the immediate sphere
they are they feel that they're being
unheard because they they can't the
council here the politician simply can't
get round to all the different
communities and that's the point that I
was making earlier it is so vast that
there are communities where the council
have traveled the number of officers
they've got out they have put everything
they've got out there but they can't get
round to these communities
hence you'll find in that report tada
Terrace just an the road from here where
it took the council about three days to
get to them the Welsh government is
responding but the Welsh government is
now asking for help is asking for
Westminster to hear the cries of help
here now whether they get the funding
from the Treasury they say they need for
the tens of millions pans of
infrastructure repair we don't we don't
know we haven't heard from the UK
government specifically on that but
there are a lot of issues now that need
addressing in terms of the longer-term
damage and it is going to cost a huge
amount of money and all the time we have
people here who are saying we're not
worried about the infrastructure damage
we want to know how we're going to be
fed and where our children are going to
sleep tonight
thanks thanks you Dean and in that very
much I think it's going to be something
we're going to be discussing with local
politicians from the valleys areas in
just a few minutes time but now let's
move a little bit further north and
indeed out of wales across england there
remains what they're calling the threat
of significant flooding as heavy rain
continues to fall on already saturated
ground the Environment Agency has
tonight warned worsening conditions
across parts of Yorkshire but the fear
of flooding also remains on the Welsh
English border
our correspondent claire fallon is in
hampton bishop near Hereford a village
cut off for several days following storm
Denis Claire well according to those
leading the emergency response we may
now need to rethink all of the models
for what unprecedented looks like and
that's because over the last couple of
weeks previous records have been broken
and because there is increasingly an
acknowledgement that this will happen
more and more and on a bigger
scale we are on the outskirts of the
village here this evening because
frankly unless you've got a 4x4 or a
canoe you can't go any further it is
right in between two rivers that still
have severe flood warnings in place and
storm Dennis dumped a huge amount of
water on this area over the weekend
earlier today though we did make it into
the village and here is what we found
there if it rains in Wales regularly
losing what canoes to rock canoes some
of them move their cars because he knew
it's coming so they move their cars up
about 40 foot if you look at the radar
you can see that there's heavy rain
coming this heavy rain across all across
Wales red lips to the north and up in
Scotland there's that band of rain but
while you can't you can't predict things
so
well the firefighter we heard from there
who was going around in the village
checking on people in their homes he
talks about the forecast of more rain
over the coming days and the Environment
Agency is saying that there is a risk of
significant flooding again in some
places not just here but also up in
areas across the Pennine in areas of
Yorkshire that have already been so
badly affected over the last couple of
weeks and bear in mind once the rain
falls in the hills it takes days to get
to the rivers so even when the rain
stops the risk does not end
ok fine thanks very much indeed well
joining us now in portly previous week
answer new flavors Assemblyman assembly
member for pointy brief and the anwered
of plight curly thanks both for coming
out in the interval at least the dry but
it's pretty cold down here tonight
um something that I suspect you're both
agree on me on I'll ask you this first
and as Annie Davis was saying and he's
making a very graphic picture here this
is way beyond the reach of borah county
council i daresay you'd say beyond the
reach of the national assembly humans
when it comes to the money that's needed
how do we cope financially just getting
the money that's needed into this
disaster well the whole thing needs a
complete rethink it's not gonna be
enough just to patch things up for
people now we need to think about longer
term plan and we know more of these
weather events are coming climate change
is telling us that so we need to ensure
that we can mitigate and prevent some of
the flooding that we've seen has been
preventable you know if you're talking
about built up debris and culverts that
should have been cleared so there's
things you can do to prevent and then
there also needs to be packages of
support in place for people to be able
to rebuild their lives so many people
who've been affected don't even have
insurance that's unaffordable for people
as things stand it's going to become
even more unaffordable in the future so
there needs to be some thought about
just something like insurance and that
in itself is gonna cost quite a lot of
money out of it right
Mackenzie of the leader of the Welsh
Assembly saying today you we need tens
of millions or many more tens of minutes
Treasury aren't gonna give you a blank
check well ultimately if we are they're
going to do with this
barré as a as a UK as a whole which
means that the funding has to be put in
what we are facing though are
unprecedented levels of weather to
storms within one week the waters hit
the highest level ever has a meter
higher than has ever been recorded and I
think that many people have told me that
they've seen their ever high they've
seen flooding before but they have never
seen anything on this scale now it's ten
million pounds coming from Welsh
government as a first step there's money
from the local council but in the longer
term on a UK level because there's
flooding across the whole of England
Scotland and if happen you look at you
look more broader globally that there
has to be a very very substantial
increase in the amount of money that is
provided at UK level - across the UK to
actually start looking at defences flood
defences that were perhaps prepared to
60s and 70s and 80s for a level of
flooding that we have now exceeded
beyond all expectations but people will
be saying a pox on all your houses I
mean climatologist climate models have
been warning for years and years in
light of extreme rainfall events
Clyde weren't ready for it Tories
weren't really listened labour weren't
ready I think you're absolutely that
none of us saw this coming none of us
expected the level of flooding on this
particular scale and that's why our
whole approach now I think has to change
in terms of planning I mean in in the
valleys we have limited scope because
the valleys are particular geography our
towns are former mining towns that are
based by rivers and so on so we have to
look at the older flood defences that
were there and how we actually develop
those well we have a look at how we plan
better there should have been an element
of planning in this we have been told
for many years that climate changes come
in this is not a one-off this is gonna
happen again so we need to make sure
were things that in place you know there
needs to be a return to the land
reclamation grants that were available
five years ago and that haven't been
available since yes there needs to be a
reform of the Barnett formula if we were
funded according to need here in Wales
then we would be able to attain meet the
needs I think the people who've got the
answer to this in some sense are the
Tories the conservative
they've got a new agriculture bill
before Parliament now talking about
natural for and naturally managing the
flow of the PLC right but look the
problem problem here is natural magic
flooding is clearly something we have to
look up in those areas when you can do
it but that is not something that
applies in the valleys natural flow but
we don't have flood plains here we have
steep sighs the water pours down we have
to have something the major thing is the
scale of water coming down and the fact
that the defenses that we have at the
moment aren't sufficient right they're
gonna be many lessons be quite alone not
long ago not long ago I was up in the
northwest philosoph airborne talking
about a whole town which might have to
be moved because of rising sea levels
okay the people were saying there
there's no strategy Welsh Assembly can't
afford this Westminster don't ought to
do about it
this is exactly the same thing there's
no strategy between our countries in
these I put a new finger in the ears and
trained to sing a very loud song that
the open that this will be put off into
the future it's not gonna be put off
into the future it's happening now
climate changes here and we need to deal
with it final quick thought we have a
wake-up call and that these events over
the last couple of days of a wake-up
call in dealing with climate child and
the consequences of that and the scale
of it and the scale right thank you both
very much you do know get warm
thanks well this afternoon here in pond
deep breathe I dropped in on a prominent
environmental campaigner currently not
campaigning but cleaning out his shop
wrecked of course by the floods here
it's a story of global politics of the
climate crisis coming home in ways
perhaps he could never have predicted
obviously you know when I came in
originally this is amazing what in in
tuned a piece let's go three days this
is amazing what you've achieved
yeah yeah no it was like it the whole
place be smashed up basically and
there's about to my waist so what's that
the whole food shop where Casper works
has already come a long way since being
inundated but more food for thought were
anymore needed for a committed green
campaigner you know you don't quite get
the full extent of the damage of it
until you actually see it yourself you
know people
struggling here already you know and
then being hit by climate change
disasters like this which I can get more
and more frequent yeah this is the banks
of the tap not the banks of the Thames
right but who's gonna reach the banks of
the Thames as well at some point you
know but we don't we need to notice an
emergency and people need to recognize
that you wanted to show me more of what
bhaji breathe has become a lot of
business just survive you know they just
get by maybe enough to pay pay a wage
you know maybe a low wage and I'm you
know then they're gonna may be able to
claim some insurance but a lot of them
that'll be the end around the corner the
Welsh language club run by volunteers
like Justin well I was actually here
when it started flooding so within 20
minutes the entire courtyard was full of
water Nia was already seeping through
the door and I was they are guys we
might as well go home this let's move
blasts orders right inside the water
here was five feet deep
repeated floods mean no insurance on
these premises so mixed emotions for
exhausted volunteers like Jane Reece the
heartbreak of seeing so much so ruined
all over again
but the enduring support of people from
the valleys and beyond you know the club
has come back after floods before but I
must say what we're really grateful for
all the volunteers who have come and
helped us out people not only from pond
to breathe area but from Cardiff Merthyr
Bridgend they're probably about a eighty
people over the last couple of days
certain we're 80 yeah yeah fantastic yes
and people with buckets and mops and you
know anything they could do out back the
TAF still raging in spate but contained
until the next time and that's it for
Polly Breen back now to Jackie in the
studio