Storm Dennis: How to check river levels for flooding

When the weather is bad and there’s been heavy rain, Jeff Baxter says he is “obsessively” online checking river levels.

His Pontypridd bookshop backs onto the River Rhondda and in February 2020, it came up through the floor of the building and flooded the whole street.

The floods caused by Storm Dennis were the worst for a generation and affected thousands of shops, businesses and homes. Many of the businesses in Mill Street Pontypridd moved out.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is urging people and businesses to sign up to its flood alert system ahead of any storms this winter to enable them to make necessary preparations.

Jeff’s shop, Storyville books, moved into one of the empty properties after the storm, and he is concerned in case there is another flood.

“What I’m concerned about is the river rising and there’s a repeat of the floods of 2020. It’s always in the back of your mind and I obsessively check the online river levels and worry about the general impact on our business.”

One in seven homes is at risk from flooding, NRW says, and this could increase by 30% in the next 100 years because of climate change.

NRW is urging people to sign up to its flood alert system before winter to receive an early warning, and view the direction as well as whether it is rising or starting to fall.

The data for the alerts comes from about 400 NRW monitoring stations around Wales which measure the depth and flow of the water in rivers.

Andy Wall, flood risk manager at NRW, said: “All the evidence is of a changing climate.

“We had 12 named storms last winter which is a record. It was persistently wet. We issued nearly 200 flood warnings. We were on elevated flood risk for over a third of the calendar year. Which just shows what we’re dealing with and rainfall is becoming more intense and dangerous.”

But Mr Wall admits despite’s NRW’s flood alerts system, there is no advice that can easily stop flood water coming in. He said sandbags and floodgates can help if used correctly.

Clwb Y Bont in Pontypridd, which is also close to the Taff, was damaged by the floods in 2020 and had also been flooded previously.

Flood barriers have now been installed on the doors and the volunteer-run club has signed up for flood alerts so it can take quick action.

Former chairman Wil Morus Jones said: “It’s very, very important because now we have flood doors in the building, so it’s very important that we’re here to make sure that the flood doors are put in place.

“We have outside facilities and we need to make sure they are safe and to make sure that everything inside, just in case the water comes in, are placed on top of one another and on top of tables.”