Newsletter #10 (November 2025)
- sachetkk1
- Dec 18, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
For the busy reader:
Storm Claudia couldn’t kill our gathering in Birmingham, which was a huge success. You can watch the film here.
In spite of fierce opposition from Defra, we managed to get our investigation into stealth cuts into the Times. You can read it here.
The community is growing as it should. Welcome to our new members. Thank you for the heroes who have stepped up to help. You amaze us every day.
Little ways to help:
Go on our FACEBOOK PAGE and invite all your contacts to like it
Circulate our NEWSLETTER SIGNUP page to everyone you know
Invite flooded people you know to our ONLINE COMMUNITY (note flooded people only!)
A month in storm season:
Dear all,
“How did everyone else sleep last night,” asked a member of the community. “It really upsets me that most of our elderly residents were up all night watching a pointless gauge,” they continued..
Such conversations were a defining feature of this month at Flooded People UK as two consecutive storms lashed the country. Our protocol for responding to such events has been tested and fine tuned. We are now all in flood season.
For some of us in the team, this was the first time witnessing this level of anguish at the coming storm. To see the people we have visited, who’ve welcomed us into their homes, and who have amazed us time and time again with the depths of their solidarity with their neighbours and their ingenuity in dealing with flood risk, facing another round of forced displacement was heartbreaking.
To all of you who have gone through this, I am simply amazed by your resilience and your strength.
One commenter has spent over 25 years of her life dealing with chronic flooding. Even as she manages her own risk, she still provides critical support to her community and the people in it who are at a breaking point, telling her they doubt they can go on if they flood again.
Her dedication is heroic. This person, and all those like her are a credit to their communities and we are very lucky to have them among us. It is an absolute privilege to be able to play a small part in supporting you all.
Amidst the stress, her emergency bag packed, another flood hero managed to find it in herself to ask our online group, “How is everyone today,” opening up a space of care, and to allow people to digest the difficult situation and prepare. Directly on WhatsApp, another inspiring community member narrated as she checked on elderly neighbour.
On behalf of everyone, thank you for stepping up. This caring for one another to face up to the threat of flooding has inspired us beyond what I can write in an email. To repeat, it is a privilege to work with you and to help support you when you need it.
Our community has grown from 100 to 220 now. If you are new, welcome. Peer support is being offered and it is working, although it can never be enough on its own. In the middle of Storm Claudia, we met with 18 of you in Birmingham to discuss our next steps to make this a national issue. We are always listening for new ways to be helpful and will be coming back to you with next steps soon.
In solidarity,
Louis
Community notes (dramatic picture edition)
Where we tell you about all the exciting conversations and interactions between flooded people online and with our staff that happened this month, as well as general campaign gossip.
A GATHERING IN BIRMINGHAM
We made a SHORT FILM to recap our in-person national gathering of flooded people! You can watch it here. But here are a few stills.
CARMARTHENSHIRE FLOOD HIGHLIGHTS
For the first time, we put our contingency plans for responding to floods to the test. There were a ton of learnings, which we quickly incorporated into our flood response playbook. But the main, amazing thing, was that we successfully managed to reach out and make our offering of peer support known to the impacted community and that those already in our group stepped up so generously to help! Listen to this link for a BBC radio interview by Laura, who spoke about her experience.
STORM CLAUDIA RESPONSE HIGHLIGHTS
Only a week later, with preparations to the gathering well in place, the flood warnings came back in force, compelling the team to go again. This time, there was a long and anxious wait through Friday, with so many of our members on severe flood alert, the feelings were palpable. Collectively, one of our big learnings was to start thinking about how during this period, we can make the community a place where people support each other in getting ready and navigating the colossal stress that comes with such widespread warnings. We were very relieved to see that it was a near miss.
WE'RE IN THE PRESS
LOOK AT THOSE STORIES! WELL DONE SATBBAG! If anyone else has a story to tell, we’re ready.
We were also featured in the I paper and a number of radio shows including BBC5. This is good. It gets the word out and it gets politicians' attention.
...more to come.
SOME VINDICATION FOR OUR INVESTIGATION INTO CUTS, WHICH (KIND OF) MADE IT OUT
Never seen anything quite like it. There was a ton of push back from Defra about our report. But ultimately, £790m is smaller than £895m. And therefore, claims of record investment are just not true, and the public has a right to know this information. We were very sad that the story didn’t make it out in digital though…
PONTYPRIDD FOOD BANK HERO GIVES FLOODED PEOPLE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
We spoke with Sharon Elward at Pontypridd foodbank about how flooding has affected her community and she took us on a tour of the area. A longform version of that interview will be released soon, in the meantime you can see her prescription for solving flooding in the UK - which we wholeheartedly agree with, HERE.
TOP POSTS IN THE COMMUNITY
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