Post-Storm Bert Recovery Efforts Underway in Affected Regions

Residents and businesses are engaged in ongoing recovery efforts following the flooding caused by Storm Bert. Intense rainfall and powerful winds led to extensive disruption throughout Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and South Gloucestershire, resulting in damage to residences, commercial establishments, and infrastructure. In Yate, residents had to evacuate their homes, while the town centers of Bradford-on-Avon and Chippenham experienced complete halts in activity, with roads and schools also shut down on Monday. Jack Vittles, the mayor of Bradford-on-Avon, reported that certain individuals remain stranded on the upper levels of their properties, stating: “We’ve seen record flood waters, businesses ruined, homes ruined, we need more help here.” Mr. Vittles commented, “It’s been devastating for this town. It happened to us early this year in January, it’s happened yesterday.” Regions already waterlogged from the weekend are preparing for additional heavy rainfall and anticipated flooding commencing at 19:00 GMT on Tuesday. Emma Hardy, the Minister for Flooding, has been inspecting businesses severely impacted by the inundation in Chippenham. She remarked, “I know how devastating flooding can be, how the clear up can take such a long time, how it impacts on people’s mental health and how businesses find it difficult to reopen.” She further advised, “What I would urge people who had been flooded is have a look at the scheme you’ve got, have a look whether it includes something called ‘Build Back Better’ because you could be entitled to an additional £10,000 to improve the flood resilience of your property.” Gary Hatto, owner of G Hatto Barbershop in the locality, is diligently endeavoring to dry his premises for the swiftest possible reopening. He recounted, “Everything that was three of four foot up, including the sofas, was floating from front to back like a scene from the Titanic.” Hatto added, “We’ll get everything out, we’ll hose it to death and then we’ll work backwards and see what’s salvageable and take it from there.” Becky Lyons, who launched Pawesome Pets in the town 13 months prior, has resumed operations for customers today, notwithstanding the flooding of her establishment. She stated, “We managed to get most of the water out yesterday. We’ve lost a fair amount of stock but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.” Lyons explained, “The first job now is to go through the stock and see how much I’ve lost. Most of it today is going to be cleaning up the mud.” She continued, “My tills down because we have no electricity but we still have stock, so I’m going to use my portable card machine and we’ll just wing it.” The River Avon in Bradford-on-Avon reached its highest recorded water level, exceeding the peak observed in December 2013. Christine Giles, a business proprietor, reported successfully extracting approximately 40,000 liters of water from her property, aided by around 100 volunteers. She informed BBC Points West, “We managed to keep the water level to about two or three inches but if we hadn’t of done that, I have no idea how high it would have been.” Lydney in Gloucestershire and Frampton Cotterell in South Gloucestershire were identified as some of the most severely affected locations in the West. Tash Saunders, Mayor of Lydney, conveyed to BBC Radio Gloucestershire that Monday had been “a day of tears everywhere we went.” She added, “The devastation was much worse than we expected as the water receded. By the time I got into town the destruction was then more evident.” Saunders concluded, “We do still have houses underwater and the big clean-up mission continues.” Alan Lancaster, a resident of Frampton Cotterell, where the River Frome also overflowed, previously informed BBC Radio Bristol: “The river is still very high. It’s still higher directly outside my house than it has been in the last 20 years.” In Bristol, The Swan Pub in Swineford remains inundated. Sammy Stride, the assistant manager, told BBC Radio Bristol