London floods highlight failure to address climate change and its consequences

Large areas of London were hit by flash floods this weekend. Although less severe than the recent devastating flooding in Europe and China, they caused serious disruption to health and transport systems and damage to homes. Whipps Cross Hospital in the east of the city declared a major incident after it suffered a power outage due to the heavy rainfall. Ceiling panels in the maternity ward collapsed. Around 100 patients had to be evacuated, all scheduled operations cancelled, ambulances diverted and patients seeking urgent treatment asked to “attend alternative hospitals where possible.” Several miles to the south, Newham Hospital was also forced to ask patients seeking urgent care to use other Accident and Emergency departments. Nine London Underground and Overground stations were closed, with a video of Pudding Mill Lane station almost completely underwater going viral, as were many major roads. The London Fire Brigade reported more than a thousand flooding-related calls, rescuing people from cars trapped in floodwater and helping with flooded basements and collapsed ceilings. Many homes have been severely damaged by the floodwater and overflowing sewage. Some households have been evacuated to emergency accommodation after power failures. Flood warnings are in place for multiple areas of England, Wales and Scotland until Thursday. The immediate cause of the weekend’s floods was the torrential rain which fell on the capital on Sunday. The average total rainfall for London in July is 45mm, but the St James’s Park station recorded 41.6mm of rain on Sunday alone, the station’s second-wettest July day since records began in 1912. This is the second time in the last two weeks that a month’s rain has fallen in a day in London. On July 12, nearly three inches of rain fell in an hour and a half in parts of the capital. On that occasion, the resulting flooding saw 120 residents in Kensington and Chelsea evacuated from their homes, another 1,000-plus calls to the London Fire Brigade and several underground stations closed. Euston Station, one of the capital’s main rail hubs, was shut down after lines out of London were completely submerged. Such extreme weather events are happening more frequently due to climate change. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, amplifying heavy rains that impact most on urban areas with large hard surface areas. Professor Hayley Fowler, from the UK Climate Resilience Programme, told the BBC, “These heavy short-duration bursts from thunderstorms which cause flash flooding are becoming more common”. Her research suggests that flash floods “will increase five-fold by the 2080s” if climate change continues on its current trajectory. Dr Jess Neumann, a hydrologist at the University of Reading, told the Guardian, “Flooding from intense summer rainfall is going happen more frequently. No city, town or village is immune to flooding and we all need to take hard action right now if we are to prevent impacts from getting worse in the future.” Similar warnings have been issued for years without any serious action being taken. Just last month, the government’s climate change committee warned that the country was not ready for the impacts of climate change, saying “adaptation action has failed to keep pace with the worsening reality of climate risk.” In February, Labour MP Meg Hillier, the chair of parliament’s public accounts committee, warned, “The government is simply not doing enough to protect the UK’s current housing stock from floods or stepping in to prevent new homes being built on flood plains”. The Environment Agency agreed: “We need long-term investment to both build and maintain flood defences if we are to continue to protect and prepare the country from the increased risks that the climate emergency is bringing, with impacts already hitting worst case scenario levels.” Major storms and floods in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015- 16 and 2019- 2020, forcing tens of thousands of evacuations and causing billions of pounds worth of damage, have proven this point. An investigation by the research arm of Greenpeace, Unearthed, found that over 3,400 of England’s “high consequence” flood defences were rated as being in poor or very poor condition in 2019-20 by the Environment Agency.

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