Current:Home > InvestAn Englishman's home has flooded nearly a dozen times in 7 years. He built a wall to stop it from happening again. -AssetLink
An Englishman's home has flooded nearly a dozen times in 7 years. He built a wall to stop it from happening again.
View
Date:2025-04-18 19:00:14
Nick Lupton's riverside home in Worcester, England, has been flooded nearly a dozen times in just seven years. To stop it, he built a massive wall that surrounds his home.
Lupton and his wife, Annie, have lived near the River Severn in a 17th-century house on property worth more than $765,000, according to local news outlet Gloucestershire Live. And since 2016, their one acre of land and home has flooded 11 times, Lupton told multiple news agencies.
Exhausted by the multiple clean-ups they have had to do over the years, Lupton and his wife spent spent months building a wall to protect their home in the high-risk flood zone, he told CBS News partner BBC.
"After we had, I think it was nine floods, before we decided to build a wall," Lupton told Reuters. "And the wall is really there to make our lives easier, but also to protect the house long term. Having flood water up to the walls of a house is never going to be good."
They finished the wall mid-September, and when it was put to the test a month later by a flood, Lupton said it stood up to the challenge – and continues to do so.
"Thankfully it did what it was supposed to do. It passed the test," he said, adding that it also helped prevent damage when it was tested again this week. "... It's been a very good test in many ways because it's one of the highest floods we've ever had."
There are hundreds of flooding alerts across England as of Friday afternoon local time, including more than 250 warnings that flooding is expected, and nearly 270 more saying flooding is possible. The U.K.'s Met Office has warned that the River Severn is expected to have flooding impacts through at least Friday and Saturday, although it could continue for "several days" in some parts.
Of the 30 measuring stations across the river, 18 recorded "high" levels on Friday, with the measuring station in Worcester recording a height of 18.2 feet and rising as of 4:30 p.m. local time on Friday – just shy of the all-time station record of 18.99 feet recorded in 2020. The normal range of water levels at this location is between 1.8 and 11 feet.
Lupton believes there are "a lot of factors" playing into the flooding at his home – including climate change.
Winters in the United Kingdom are "projected to become warmer and wetter on average," the Met Office says on its website, adding that within 50 years, winter will be up to 4.5 degrees Celsius warmer and up to 30% wetter.
"Heavy rainfall is also more likely," the office says. "Since 1998, the UK has seen six of the ten wettest years on record. The winter storms in 2015 were at least 40% more likely because of climate change. ... Parts of the U.K. will be in danger of flooding, with low lying and coastal cities at particular risk."
- In:
- Climate Change
- Flooding
- United Kingdom
- Flood
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
veryGood! (712)
Related
- The GOP and Kansas’ Democratic governor ousted targeted lawmakers in the state’s primary
- A doctor near East Palestine, Ohio, details the main thing he's watching for now
- The Impossibly Cute Pika’s Survival May Say Something About Our Own Future
- All Eyes on Minn. Wind Developer as It Bets on New ‘Flow Battery’ Storage
- Breaking debut in Olympics raises question: Are breakers artists or athletes?
- Nearly 1 in 5 adults have experienced depression — but rates vary by state, CDC report finds
- Saving Ecosystems to Protect the Climate, and Vice Versa: a Global Deal for Nature
- Natural Gas Leak in Cook Inlet Stopped, Effects on Marine Life Not Yet Known
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- Lawmakers again target military contractors' price gouging
Ranking
- FBI: California woman brought sword, whip and other weapons into Capitol during Jan. 6 riot
- How the EPA assesses health risks after the Ohio train derailment
- In Alaska’s Cook Inlet, Another Apparent Hilcorp Natural Gas Leak
- Pack These Under $25 Amazon Products to Avoid Breaking Out on Vacation
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Tennessee becomes the first state to pass a ban on public drag shows
- New details emerge about American couple found dead in Mexico resort hotel as family shares woman's final text
- Fracking Ban About to Become Law in Maryland
Recommendation
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
Activist Judy Heumann led a reimagining of what it means to be disabled
Dakota Pipeline Is Ready for Oil, Without Spill Response Plan for Standing Rock
It Ends With Us: Blake Lively Has Never Looked More Hipster in New Street Style Photos
Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
Vanderpump Rules Finale Bombshells: The Fallout of Scandoval & Even More Cheating Confessions
Vanderpump Rules’ Ariana Madix Addresses Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss Breakup Rumors
Uber and Lyft Are Convenient, Competitive and Highly Carbon Intensive