"Darren Ridley is always on high alert, constantly checking his phone for rain warnings even in the middle of the night. Our whole family is permanently on edge, he says. If we hear rain, day or night, we're up and checking the house. I can't sleep without replaying our flood plan in my head for weaknesses. Ridley's house in Folkestone floods at least twice a year."
"The floods come so quickly that it's unbelievable. We often wake up to find our garden a metre deep, he says. And it is not clean water. It's raw sewage; a raging torrent that crashes in with more force than you could believe, he says. My elderly neighbour got knocked over by a heavy timber board swept along by the flood waters. He thought he was going to drown in sewage."
Darren Ridley and his family experience frequent, rapid sewage floods that often strike at night, regularly filling their garden to a metre. The floods bring raw sewage and heavy debris, creating immediate physical danger and long-term contamination of property. Ridley reports lasting trauma and PTSD, and describes children growing up amid filth and infestations. More than six million properties in England are already at risk from rivers, the sea, sewage or surface water, with projections rising toward eight million by mid-century as the climate changes. Local response teams drain liquid and attempt debris removal, but residents are frequently left to clear hazardous sewage themselves.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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