Council Leader pays tribute to community spirit during Storm Babet

Denbighshire County Council’s Leader has praised the community’s resilience and efforts following the heavy rainfall which hit the County during Storm Babet on 20 October.

Councillor Jason McLellan said, “Many Denbighshire residents faced a very difficult time during the storm, with some people being evacuated, and others having to protect their homes following an unprecedented amount of rainfall in a short period of time.

“The impact of Storm Babet affected residents, schools, and businesses. Yet again, the community spirit in our county shone through with people going the extra mile to help each other.”

The Council experienced a surge in demand during Storm Babet dealing with over 600 calls on Friday and over the weekend. The Customer Service Centre took over 500 calls on Friday alone and logged 195 incidents. From 5pm on Friday until 8.30am on Monday Denbighshire’s out of hours line dealt with an additional 118 calls and logged 63 incidents. These included road flooding and road closures, property flooding, river flooding, and damage to property.

The Council’s teams worked throughout the night on Friday and over the weekend to resolve a range of issues. Teams continued to work with individuals directly affected by flooding and worked to clear debris affecting many of the county’s rural roads and critical culverts.

Councillor McLellan went on to say, “I’d also like to thank the tireless work of Council Officers, some of whom worked through the night and into the weekend to deal with the aftermath of Storm Babet.”

 Information about what you should do in the event of a flood is available on the Council’s website:

https://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/emergencies/floods.aspx

You can find out how best to prepare for a flood on Natural Resources Wales website:

https://naturalresources.wales/flooding/what-to-do-in-a-flood/?lang=en