An Early Morning Of

an early morning of despair courtesy of storm dennis

By Craig Muncey

2 The 16th February 2020 will be etched in the minds of many residents who live in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area. This piece recaptures my own personal thoughts on the natural disaster that occurred and also the impact on many people who were not as fortunate as me and my family. My story is that at 5.10am on the 16th February in my home in Nantgarw, I awoke to whimpering sounds coming from downstairs. We have a dog, a mini daschund called Bruno that sleeps on the sofa in the living room. Normally the warning system Bruno gives us to alert us to his need to go outside is by scratching the bottom of the closed living room door. As all I heard was a quiet whimper not scratching, for a moment I considered leaving him to settle. However, I decided I had better go downstairs to investigate, and with hindsight, I am so thankful I did. I did not put any lights on in fear of waking others (my girlfriend, waking her is just not worth it at that time of day), so it was very dark, as I stepped off the final step on the stairs - I stepped into freezing cold water! My initial thought was that the washing machine in the kitchen had flooded. As the cold water broke me from my sleeping slumber, I waded into the living room and I then knew we had a very serious situation on our hands. Poor Bruno was sat on the sofa terrified. He could not scratch the bottom of the living room door as it was under water, if he had left the safety of the sofa and got into the water I dread to think what would

3 it has certainly eased some of the pain felt. It is a huge credit to all those who have helped those impacted, and will be remembered for many many years how they supported us. It does not seem enough to say thank you, but I do thank you from the bottom of my heart. We now find ourselves in the aftermath of the storm which brought the floods, and with more rain forecasted and rivers still high there is still a real fear of this happening again. Currently, a number of houses in the area have no residents as properties are inhabitable. It feels at times like a ghost town. Others who have insurance, are waiting on insurance companies to deal with their claims and provide the funds to purchase household goods to replace the lost ones, some goods with sentimental values cannot be replaced. They are now just memories. As you can imagine, the memory of the floods is very much at the forefront of our thoughts, and the anger and frustration felt is still very raw. There are still many questions to answer and hopefully over time we will get some answers. Clearly, the flood warning alert system failed. We have been told that the river near to where I live was being monitored from around midnight that night, which makes you question the process of if it is monitored and with continuous heavy rain persisting, why did my village get an alert after we were already under water? Also, where did the water breach on the river and what actions will be taken to try to eliminate this happening again? These are amongst many other questions residents want and deserve answers to. What I have learnt from all this is the respect you need to have for the natural world. The speed and volume of the water was incredible, as was the area it covered. Also I have learnt how great human beings can be. There are people now in my community I will be friends with for many years when before this event, I would have just acknowledged in the street. Humans have got some bad press over recent times, but take it from me, there are still many great people out there. What I and others who have been impacted by the floods now need is support from the council and Welsh Assembly. There are some funds being put in place, but for those who have lost everything, much more is needed. These people need assistance to allow them to rebuild their lives. I just hope this happens. They deserve it. have happened to the mini daschund we love so much. It probably worked in our favour that he does not like water at the best of times, especially freezing, black stinking water. I grabbed him and put him under my arm and waded back into the hallway, and shouted up the stairs to my girlfriend, Sarah to alert her to the situation and to take the dog from me. The nightmare began. At 5.19am I received a text message from the flood alert company which we had signed up for for flood alerts. A voicemail referred us to a telephone number to ring and also gave us information of their website address for further information. One minute later a text message from the same company advising us similar information to the voicemail message? At this point we were under water. The alert was at this time, pointless. We managed to get out of the property after around 5 hours of sitting upstairs. The water subsided enough to allow us to get out via the back garden wading through water with the poor dog in a rucksack. Family members were there to pick us up, which I will be forever thankful for. At its highest point I would say in our home, the water reached around three foot, but as I said at the start of this article some were not so fortunate as us, that’s if you can call it being fortunate! Other residents in the same street, other streets close by and a neighbouring village, have stories far more dramatic than mine. Stories of elderly people sleeping downstairs being saved by neighbours breaking into their houses. Basement flats where individuals had to swim to safety, these are just a few terrifying things I have heard. Some people have lost everything, some are friends of mine. Many people have no insurance, their human struggles are very real and will be for a period of time, trying to get their lives back on track. I am very surprised that no human lives were lost. If the flood had hit later in the day then I am sure that fatalities would have occurred. So we need to count our blessings on that score. The communities affected have been nothing short of fantastic. Taffs Well Rugby Club and Taffs Well Village Hall just to mention two, opened immediately after the event and have been a great support for all affected. If it was just with a kind word, a hug or a cup of tea, they have been a tower of strength for all impacted, and with all the food, drinks and cleaning materials donated by so many,