Newsletter #8 (September 2025)

Dear all,

If you’re just joining us, welcome to edition 8 of the ever-evolving Flooded People UK newsletter. 

FOR THE QUICK READER: WE’RE GETTING READY FOR WINTER 

• Our political plan is ready: We’re going to flood the zone with your stories.

  • In order to get politicians to listen, we will spend our winter shining a giant spotlight on everything that happens before a flood, after a flood, and during the stressful season. 

  • So we’re looking for spokespeople! Write me if you’re up for it. 

• Meanwhile, in the community, we’re gearing up. 

  • We’re creating a triage system for needs, and investing in our digital muscle. 

  • This is a critical test of our org, read on for more details… 

THE LONG READ: OUR PLANS IN DETAIL AND HOW YOU FIT IN

Since launching in February, we’ve built a thriving network of about fifty flooded communities. In fact, we’ve crossed the threshold of 100 members in the online community this month.

But now comes the real test. And, for this newsletter, I want to invite you to join us on it. 

As winter approaches, many flooded people expect to get flooded again. They are hunkering down, preparing plans, and tuning into warnings.  

Faced with this situation, we need to accomplish two things. 

First, we need to ensure that those people who do flood this winter can access the support they need and find our mutual support network.

We know the resource works, as we’ve recently had a first-time flooded community find us and access valuable information about PFR and how to work with their local authorities. It’s confirmed that it truly is helpful to have access to real people who have gone through what you’ve gone through. 

The challenge is now to scale this level of support and to ensure that people find us. To this end, we’re investing in our capacity to find people online, launching a first social media strategy. This will direct people to the network. 

In order to prepare the network to support more people, we’ve come up with a plan. Working with Heather, we’ve come up with a list of the kinds of situations the community will face, and the level of support needed for each. 

It is possible, sadly, that we will be facing major flood events this winter. When ten, twenty, or even a hundred people come in, our community will be ready to assist them and ensure that they have the best support possible. 

Of course, supporting people through emergencies is only half the work. We also need to act collectively to ensure that there are less emergencies… 

So, secondly, we need to tell the world what is happening to our communities. This is where we’ve prepared ‘operation flood the zone’. 

There’s lots of media coverage of people who are flooding right now. But there is so much less interest in all the people who can’t sleep when it rains, who can’t sell their homes, whose health or even relationships have suffered from the stress. The silent victims of flooding, suffering before and after the events. 

We’re going to shine a giant spotlight on it this winter. And we need you for that. 

We’re building an army of flooded spokespeople to saturate tabloid media coverage with our stories. Why? Because flooding always comes behind every other issue. And if we raise the profile by telling the whole story, we believe we can get politicians to give it the attention it’s due.

So, if you’re a flooded person, or know some, here is what you can do: 

1. Join our online community if you haven’t already 

2. Become a spokesperson who will standby through winter to tell their story (answer this email by telling me about you)

3. Recruit other flooded people to tell their story in your community (answer this email) 

In solidarity, 

Louis 

COMMUNITY NOTES: BITS AND BOBS WORTH NOTING

Site visits continue:

To the left, Harry and Sanjay with the heroic Wendy Pamela Giligan of Dinas Powys. Wendy has been doing amazing work supporting her community with chronic flooding.

Top post in the community this month?

The ever-leaderful Colonel Peter Cross is building a network of groups across Nottinghamshire, and solicited help from the group to find more flooded people around. 70 people saw it, delivering 20 comments and an interesting conversation in the group. 

A flood surgery?

Last Summer, I asked the online community if they would be interested in talking to engineers about their local flood issues. The answer was a resounding yes! We’ve teamed up with a big firm and are testing out a new system where people can submit cases and get a little independent advice from engineers on their situation. 

Clear the damn culvert! 

I got tired of Vicar Paul Cawthorne (Hadnall FLAG) CC’ing me on emails to his local authority and said “please stop, I’ll just come over and clear the culvert myself.” So, if anyone’s in Shropshire around the 24th of October, come see me do that. In all seriousness, we know that clearing culverts isn’t enough, but it is important and is a sign of caring about people. 

A play about Fishlake floods

The community of Fishlake in Yorkshire was hit by very serious flooding in 2019. They have made a play about their experience. We’re going! See you there? https://www.theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk/events/fishlake-2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawNIht9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF1b3V3Uk5IbDRtMEl1Sm4zAR5ONM6lLULvgFvJkPqLIgL4fyfvQqQY67jyI5fqdvlR1WGZ5EAVQvvxwSOLcQ_aem_ZBvrMdfrFsvDBBaasuJ6pw

Our gathering of flooded people is live! 

On the 15th of November, we all meeting in Birmingham. This is the gathering of flooded people we’ve been teasing for so long. If you’re flooded and want to join, please use this link. We can help support travel costs. 

https://actionnetwork.org/events/first-national-gathering-of-flooded-people/

Stoney Stanton FLAG turns six

I’ve been particularly inspired by Liz Perry and Ann Jackson this month. Their group is going on six years, and is so close to its goal. They’ve mobilised media coverage for their anniversary and are £9k away from their goal to install a new pipe.