With 76 flood warnings still in force across the UK and further downpours forecast, parts of the country have endured rain almost without pause since the start of the year. The prolonged wet weather is disrupting livelihoods and daily life, particularly in rural areas, where flooded roads, waterlogged ground and repeated storms are making it harder to keep businesses afloat.
In north Devon, master thatcher Mark Harrington, 61, has been inundated with calls from customers with leaking roofs. “This is silly season for us thatchers,” he says. “Even if you do manage to work for a day, it’s punctuated by periods of an hour and a half of rain where you’re sitting in your truck doing nothing.” He says jobs are taking longer, and he is “haemorrhaging money”, earning a minimal wage himself. Shortages of wheat, his key material, have also driven up costs.
Near Helston in Cornwall, John, 83, and his wife Vicki, 73, have lost 15 trees this year alone, many planted nearly 40 years ago to shelter their plant nursery. “The ground gets very soggy, and the trees hold less well in it,” John says. Surrounding lanes have been submerged, and potholes have worsened, doubling the time of a seven-mile drive to town.
Vicki, who runs the nursery specialising in old-fashioned roses and herbs, says the ground is “totally soggy and waterlogged”. Three storms in quick succession, including Storm Goretti, blew off her last remaining polytunnel cover. “It’s very hard to come back from that,” she says. She has decided to scale back operations, noting that 30 or 40 years ago the climate was far more stable.
Both Harrington and John express fears for the future. Harrington says: “If a skilled tradesman such as myself is unable to maintain a team or even work as much as is required, then I fear for the future.” John believes the worst is yet to come as global heating continues to affect weather patterns.
