12/02/2014 The One Show


12/02/2014

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Hello and welcome to the One Show with Matt Baker. And Alex Jones.

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Now, with the country still being drenched by rain and battered by

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high winds and with parts of the country due to get another month's

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worth of rain in the next two days, we are giving some of the people

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worst affected the chance to speak to those at the top. Amongst them,

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Countryfile's expert Tom Heap will be attempting to explain what is

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causing this rain. It is good to have you with us. And Eric Pickles,

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who has come straight from a COBRA meeting, is here to tell us how his

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government are planning to get rid of the floodwater after the wettest

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winter in 250 years. Thank you for joining us. I wish it was under

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different circumstances. And back so soon. In Berkshire, Matt Allright

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has set up an advice clinic with experts on insurance and flood

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prevention. Iwan is in Worcestershire to find out the

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multi-million pound flood defences there are going to hold out. And we

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will find out what would happen if we continued to let the cedar its

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worst from an international coastal erosion expert. And this time, we

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are not going to blame it on the weatherman. But we do have John

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Hammond with us. I don't make the weather, I just forecast it. Now, if

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you would like to ask any of the people you can see a question

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tonight, get in touch. On a more positive note, we want to celebrate

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all of the flood heroes, so do send in a picture if you have got power

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of the people who have been helping you and we will show them later. It

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is going to be a busy old hour, but with all this talk of ad weather, we

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need someone to bring a bit of sunshine to tonight's proceedings.

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Just as well we have got lovely Shane Richie! How are you doing,

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everybody? I have it on good authority that there will be a bit

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of a storm happening over Walford. You are based around the Surrey

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area. I know, I am a bit worried about this weekend. Sorry about

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that! Where I live on the Downs, even just driving in today, it was

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scary. Friends and family live in the Surrey area and they have been a

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bit flippant about it, but now it seems serious full up and it seems

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to affect the whole country now and not just down south. We are hearing

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about Wales and northern England. It is across the board. Well, our man

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with webbed feet, filter from all, has been in your area to meet some

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of the people in Surrey who are most in need of help and a welcome smile.

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This is the worst flood situation Chertsey has seen since March 1947.

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Wow, this is Surrey. Knee deep. Overly deep. -- over knee deep. The

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army, fire and follow the rescue services are ready to evacuate

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people from their homes. While the rescue services are strained with

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the demand of calls, we went to see how people are coping. Are you

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staying put? We are trying to raise our furniture up a bit on boxes. We

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have moved our kitchen stuff up. Has water come into the house yet? Not

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yet. We have got no sandbags. Are you evacuating? Yeah. Have you been

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told to? Because we have two young kids. We got evacuated at five this

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morning. My sister, who lives up there, she came and picked us up. So

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we are going to stay at her house. And then an hour or so later, we

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have now evacuated from there. The speed it came up was really quick,

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as if someone just opened something up and it was just rushing through.

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The volunteer and rescue services are giving up their time to guide

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people to safety. If you are a volunteer, what is your day job? I

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work for Marks Spencer. What is your message? Only ring 999 if it is

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an emergency. Please find your local rescue centre. Don't put yourself in

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danger. District in Chertsey is one of the worst I have seen so far

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today -- the street. That's roundabout has become a little

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island. If evacuation is a last resort for the residents, desperate

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to protect their property. Is it the first time you have inflicted? We

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have been here more than ten years and never had a flood. In 2003, it

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was not like this. Come here. I know, it is terrible. It is

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shocking. Water is coming up from under the floorboards. It is one of

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the countless homes ruined by dirty water. We just had a new setting as

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well. It will be ruined now. Heartbreaking to see this go,

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because so much effort has gone into it. Do you think anything could have

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done? If they had dredged the river. Some people could make better

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decisions than the so-called intelligent people in government and

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the agencies. And you are at the sharp end of it. We are on the

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receiving end. Although people have been evacuated to safety, the waters

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are still rising. So until the weather improves, there is little

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hope of returning home soon. Extraordinary. We are going to see

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extraordinary images all evening. I hope some of those people benefit

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from tonight's show. John, the reason we have got this map is

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because we have got flood alerts in yellow and then the flood warnings

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in red. You are going to tell us what is going on up and down the

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country. There is severe weather up and down the country. All the

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concentration at the moment is on the floods and the gales. But

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further north across Scotland, it is cold. We have got a lot of snow,

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good news for skiers. And that is because we are furthest away from

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the jet stream. The jet stream is generating the wind and the rain

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across the country. The way from that to the north, it is cold. It

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makes you wonder how you can have all the flooding down there, and

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this extraordinary snow up here. In Portstewart earlier today, we saw

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snow. It is still on the northern side of the jet stream, so it is a

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wintry nights to come. If you live in Northern Ireland, you may be

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waking up to snow in the morning. The same applies across parts of

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Scotland and northern England. We are concerned about blizzards across

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the Pennines. We have very strong wind, 100 mile an hour gusts

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spattering the coasts of Wales. More storm winds this evening. We have a

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red warning from the Met Office for parts of West Wales and northern

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England. Blackpool has 80 mile an hour gusts this evening. That will

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cause serious damage. Does go to the eastern side of the UK.

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Earlier in the winter, Hemsby had the strongest search for 60 years.

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These areas are not immune from this crazy winter weather. Talking of the

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coastal erosion, we are looking at houses that have just subsided.

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Let's get into the flooding areas. All these areas are covered by flood

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alerts severe warnings in some cases. Let's to Shrewsbury. The

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River Severn is around four metres here. All this water is flowing off

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the hills of Wales. So although the rain might be stopping for a time,

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there is such a line between the rain falling over Wales and flowing

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down to the River Severn. You expect that to rise? It is to peak tomorrow

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morning and then perhaps come down a bit. But with more rain forecast, it

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will go up again. The same applies to Worcester. At the moment, river

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levels are at around five metres, very concerning. Again, it is set to

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peak tomorrow morning and go down a bit but probably up again by

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Friday. Iwan is in Worcester for us tonight. And raise bread and the

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Thames Valley, where we have 14 severe flood warnings across parts

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of the south-east, meaning danger to life. What's more, the river levels

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have peaked for the time being. They will go down a bit, but there is

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more rain in the forecast and only one way those river levels will go,

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I imagine, with all that rain funnelling down the Thames. Andy

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Somerset Levels? We saw the pictures earlier in the week of colossal

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amounts of water spread over a vast area. Six metres of water across the

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Somerset Levels. If it stopped raining tomorrow and did not rain

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for weeks, it would still take a long time for that waters to

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disappear. We have a before and after shot of Taunton, brought in by

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Gill Mogg, who took this picture. This was the before shot, bone dry,

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beautiful scene. After, covered in water. It shows how parts of the

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country have been transformed. People are looking up to the skies

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and saying, where on earth is this water coming from? Surely the skies

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must be the by now. Where is that water appearing from? It is hard to

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believe, but the atmosphere is actually a fluid. Meteorology is

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fluid dynamics. You have all these air molecules, all of which can

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carry moisture. And one of the reasons why we have got such a

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strong jet stream this winter could well lie on the other side of the

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world in Southeast Asia, where the sea water is particularly warm, so

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there is a lot of moisture going into the atmosphere. That is

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believed to be one of the factors which is driving such a strong jet

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stream on this side of the globe. The stronger the jet stream, the

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stronger the storms. The stronger the storms, the more wind and rain.

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You are going to be sticking around and answering questions for us. So,

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there is the situation across the UK.

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If you are in one of the areas that has remained unscathed, count your

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blessings. When you factor in the last few years, you realise how

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extreme our weather has become and how much stress that is putting on

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the country. This winter has the thousands of

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people in Britain been a nightmare. The country has been battered by

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storms and rain . The fact is that our weather is getting worse. Our

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hot spells are getting hotter, our cold snaps are getting colder. And

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of course, it is getting wetter. December 2013 was the wettest on

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record for Scotland, but not England, whereas January 2014 was

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the wettest on record for central and southern England and twice the

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average for that region of the UK. 2012 was an interesting year. The

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November floods were symptomatic of a very wet November, worries or

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twice the average November rainfall. Average rainfall has

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increased by five sent over the last 30 years, and the highest rainfall

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statistics keep getting broken, year-on-year. And when it is not

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wet, it is dry, to drive. You might enjoy a bit of sunshine, but

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sunshine can also mean drought. Between April 2010 and March 2012,

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we saw the joint driest 24 month period on record. We saw about 75%

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of the rainfall we should have done in that two-year period, and that

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led to worries about the summer of 2012 and the fact that there might

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not be water in the reservoir is. That then gave way to what became

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the wettest summer on record, so 2012 was a year of extremes. Talking

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of extremes, did you know that our summers are getting hotter? The

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hottest days in summer are now two degrees warmer in many places since

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the 1950s. And in 2011, it hit 29 Celsius.

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was the coldest month of December. Tying it all together, what it's

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really interesting is that we are going from one extreme to the next.

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Four of the five wettest years in the UK have happened since the year

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2000. We are seeing the trend towards warmer and wetter summers

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since then, and all the indicators are pointing to the fact that the UK

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is getting wetter over time. That is the interesting, worrying factor in

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all of this. So is there worse to come? That is the question that we

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will try to solve. Eric Pickles has come straight from the COBRA

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meeting. David Cameron started and you ended up finishing it because he

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had to leave. What were you talking about? Clearly the wind that is at

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very high levels. Going through Wales and the Northwest. Maybe by

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about midnight it will ease off, but of course in that time it will take

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down power lines and take out trees. We will probably have to stop the

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trains for a little while to avoid problems. The second thing we were

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looking at was getting ahead of the flooding, recognising that there is

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another bout of rain coming towards us, which will mean more flooding in

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the Thames. We are really organising, getting round, knocking

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on doors to try and warn people about this. Is that the conclusion,

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just telling people? Yes, and that is the sensible thing to do. The

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police, the army and wardens have been doing that. Next week will also

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be difficult so what we are doing is extending a lot of the protection

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around strategically important things, like pumping water,

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electricity, to ensure that people's lives can go on. The last

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thing we want to do is scaremonger of course. Within that meeting, what

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is the feeling? Could this be the beginning of the end? No. People can

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be assured of that. In terms of by and large our flood defences, they

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have held. We are probably saved by them to the tune of 1.3 million

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properties. If you are stuck in the Somerset Levels, in Chertsey, in the

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Thames Valley, that is no comfort for you because of the flooding that

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is affecting your properties. Particularly difficult in the Thames

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Valley. You will probably remember from school geography lessons that

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the Thames Valley has a lot of gravel and once it gets a lot of

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water in, it goes below any barrier and comes up in different places. In

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terms of getting help and working with people for the recovery, we are

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going to be offering people up to ?5,000 when they start the process

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of redecorating to put something in to give them more protection against

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water. We have seen a lot of reaction to the flooding, but there

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are lots of things that need to be done looking ahead to next year to

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prevent this kind of thing, that goes without saying. What is

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particularly striking about this flooding, we have had all kinds of

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different water events. Coastal flooding, river flooding, ground

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water flooding, and flash floods. The four horsemen of the apocalypse

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when it comes to flooding. And this is what is quite unusual, the

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duration of the floods. The length of time the water has been hanging

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around. Where I do have sympathy with the Government is that this

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makes it very tricky for them. They can't say that they can see the end

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of the pain because it appears to be going on and on. The difficult

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question alongside the relief effort that the Government have to tackle,

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the questions going forward, how can we tackle it again? People have come

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into the audience to pose questions for Eric and Tom. Alice, I was

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horrified when I heard about your situation. Just tell Eric, Tom and

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Shane where you are living and what your situation is. We have had flood

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water damage since the beginning of January. We have electricity but no

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heating. We can't flush the toilets anymore really. We are sharing at

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our friends' houses. -- showering. We have had this before and we know

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it will happen every year to a certain level. We are beginning to

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redesign the house ourselves. That is your house. That is the kid's

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play room. And you have a four -year-old and also a two -year-old.

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What is your question to Eric? We are doing what we can to redesign

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the house to cope with flooding in the future. We want to know what

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help we will get for the clean-up, and what help will be get to

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rebuild? And to stop having the water in in the future? You have

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been through it before, by the sounds of things, and you will know

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that it takes a long time to dry out the house. Just when the floods go,

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that is when the jobs begin. We will be offering you some help to try and

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make your house that little bit more secure. They did talk to me a little

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bit about you but because I did not know your surname I was trying to

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find things out. You have electricity back on now. We have

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electrics but the boiler is underwater. These nice people are

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going to give me your surname and address and we will talk to the

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power companies on your behalf. What a terrible experience. How many kids

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have you got? Two. They are brave and they are coping really well. I

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am pleased to hear that. That ?5,000, it is in response to

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cleaning things up but is it also about making houses flood proof? It

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is exclusively about making houses more flood proof. We will be funding

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more councils. Is it open to everybody? They will be looking to

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the councils to help people out with the process, with hardship and the

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like. We will find that 100%. Another question from joke from

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Chertsey. Thank you for coming in. It is your livelihood that has been

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affected. -- Joe from Chertsey. I have stables and the horses cannot

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be exercised and they cannot eat any grass. We cannot access the stables.

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Police and local people are trying to run the streets but there is

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borderline anarchy with people disagreeing about whether they

:21:28.:21:30.

should be allowed down there. Why don't we have more local police

:21:31.:21:34.

policing the streets because they have been drafted in from other

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areas and they are not familiar with us and what is going on? There will

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also be troops from the community -- who have a community function. If

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you give me your address afterwards, I will speak to what is called Gold

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command, the person in charge of your area, to check that we are

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offering help. Where are the horses? Locked up in their stables. They are

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racehorses, for racing, and we cannot even let them out. They are

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highly strung at the best of times. I don't know what is happening. We

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are waiting to see that nobody seems to have any information. You don't

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feel supported? Definitely not. In terms of the local governments, and

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Environment Agency, they have to inform people what is going on

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because you need some kind of information. Is that your farm?

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Those are my stables. Go on? It is easy to show sympathy with

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individuals in this room but where do you draw the line? Hundreds of

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people had their homes flooded before Christmas up in the North.

:22:51.:22:56.

20,000 homes were affected. They will be asking where their money is.

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We are now drawing a line to make sure they are included. So it is

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only this winter and not previous years? I think we can only deal with

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the flood that we have got and it is not unreasonable to try to make sure

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those folks are well looked after. But are you setting a precedent in

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terms of future flooding? So we should. Is that a guarantee? Money

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from the Government after flooding? We are trying to make people dry and

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safe. We will be spending money on flood defences but also we will be

:23:36.:23:41.

helping out businesses. We will be helping out farmers. And also with

:23:42.:23:44.

someone like that, you may say it is just one person, but once they have

:23:45.:23:47.

gone through the process of the flood, it is like being burgled.

:23:48.:23:53.

When floodwaters go, you clean-up, but every time it rains you start to

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worry and they need some assurance and we should not be frightened of

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creating a precedent. There we go. Let's go live to Wraysbury in

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Berkshire where the flood advice clinic is filling up.

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Yes, we are in the Baptist church Hall in Wraysbury. You can tell it

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gives Wraysbury because almost everybody is wearing waders. They

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have had a month of absolute misery thanks to the flooding. The next

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couple of days could make their lives even worse. Are you all

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right, everybody? They are made of strong stuff, it turns out here, in

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Wraysbury. Let's remind ourselves what is taking place. Then, you have

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been working on flood relief and you are a resident. -- Ben. We sought

:24:43.:24:56.

the flooding affecting the Westside of Wraysbury. We had a consultation

:24:57.:25:03.

meeting to prepare ourselves for the worst. We got information back from

:25:04.:25:07.

the Environment Agency and there was a lot of water coming our way in the

:25:08.:25:13.

next two or three days. It was after the initial flooding, the period

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when people would have been getting their houses back in order, bringing

:25:17.:25:21.

up builders, and then the waters came back? People were refurbishing

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their houses and then it came back, a second blow. Do you feel like you

:25:28.:25:32.

have been given help and that it was spotted early enough? Not at all.

:25:33.:25:37.

The only help came when Sue Burroughs made her plea on Monday

:25:38.:25:42.

morning and then it came in. So you link that to the media attention

:25:43.:25:45.

that Wraysbury has got and other places might not be getting?

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Absolutely. I know that you have more sandbags filling to do. Thank

:25:52.:25:57.

you for coming down. At The One Show we can provide an expert whose email

:25:58.:26:03.

addresses you would not normally get. Matt Cullen from the

:26:04.:26:07.

Association of British Insurers is talking about the claims after the

:26:08.:26:14.

rains. And a director of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

:26:15.:26:18.

He is talking bricks and mortar, how to protect your houses and how to

:26:19.:26:22.

fix them afterwards if it is too late. And Mary, a flood survival

:26:23.:26:28.

expert. Flooded 12 times herself, using that experience to help other

:26:29.:26:33.

people now. But the most important person, Andrew. How are you doing?

:26:34.:26:38.

In the studio we have got Eric Pickles. I know you have got a

:26:39.:26:42.

question for him. This is a golden opportunity to ask him something. I

:26:43.:26:47.

want to know about the response time basically and what can we do to make

:26:48.:26:51.

sure it does not happen again? More importantly, we need to know what we

:26:52.:26:56.

as a community can do so this does not happen again. You want to know

:26:57.:27:02.

what you can do so you are taking responsibility yourself? Tell us

:27:03.:27:17.

what we can do to protect ourselves? We want to know because it can't

:27:18.:27:19.

happen again like this. There you go, that is the question. Most of

:27:20.:27:23.

the flooding there is coming from ground water, so we cannot put in

:27:24.:27:27.

sandbags to prevent it. What we have to look at individually is making

:27:28.:27:32.

people's homes as sustainable as we can. Quite a lot of that water that

:27:33.:27:36.

we are seeing is coming up through people's floorboards. Generally the

:27:37.:27:42.

water table there is completely saturated. So in answer to that

:27:43.:27:47.

question, what can they do? A lot of troops right now are building up

:27:48.:27:54.

sandbags. We are doing our best to try and mitigate the flooding. But

:27:55.:28:01.

ultimately we are going to have to look at the security of particular

:28:02.:28:09.

houses. Go on. Let's look into the future now and look ahead. We have

:28:10.:28:12.

had this scenario over three months. If we get the same whether next

:28:13.:28:17.

year, what will be done from after the clean-up to the beginning of

:28:18.:28:20.

next year to try and help this situation? Just to understand how

:28:21.:28:27.

difficult it has been, most of the flood defences have held, which is

:28:28.:28:32.

great. We do have an agreed programme in which we are going to

:28:33.:28:39.

improve them. In the short term, we are looking at helping farmers,

:28:40.:28:43.

businesses, individuals that have suffered from the flooding. But

:28:44.:28:51.

experts tell us this kind of level of flooding is exception of --

:28:52.:28:58.

exceptional but we do have to plan for it for the future. This will

:28:59.:29:03.

cost an incredible amount of money. Some viewers have been asking

:29:04.:29:07.

questions. Would you consider giving up HS2 to give that money to flood

:29:08.:29:15.

defences? It is not a binary choice. We can put in flood defences and

:29:16.:29:20.

have HS2. There is such a lack of capacity on that line. If we didn't

:29:21.:29:25.

do that, we would be condemning people travelling in the North West

:29:26.:29:32.

two decades of misery. Tom, how much would we have to spend? We currently

:29:33.:29:37.

spend 615 million and the government has added 132 that in response to

:29:38.:29:42.

the current floods. A report says we have to raise that to at least one

:29:43.:29:46.

early in a year to maintain the current level of defence. The

:29:47.:29:49.

current level does not appear to be adequate, so it looks like it should

:29:50.:29:54.

be more than that. We are going to step up the pace. The prime minister

:29:55.:29:58.

is determined that we are going to do what we can. We have got to

:29:59.:30:05.

concentrate on the recovery, but in the long-term, we have a plan of

:30:06.:30:11.

increasing the amount of money we are spending on flood defences. But

:30:12.:30:15.

we will not be able to make it per assessment from the Somerset Levels

:30:16.:30:19.

across the Thames Valley until the water has subsided a bit more.

:30:20.:30:26.

Hopefully, as we move towards the end of February, we will get a

:30:27.:30:31.

normal winter weather. It will be wet but not as bad as this. Eric, we

:30:32.:30:37.

know you have to go, so we . You there, but thank you for joining us.

:30:38.:30:44.

-- we will leave things there. Time to test our reflex is now and take a

:30:45.:30:52.

break from the bad weather. Let's see if you can recognise this voice.

:30:53.:31:00.

Here comes that Mallett. He will need to make a fast recovery.

:31:01.:31:08.

Michael's turn now, that mallet hurtling towards its target like a

:31:09.:31:11.

heat-seeking missile. Come on, Michael! I don't believe it! He has

:31:12.:31:19.

missed two. And Jason has seized his moment. Smashing! He has done it. If

:31:20.:31:30.

you love your slow-mos, this is the show for you. If you are TV geek and

:31:31.:31:35.

if you love slow-mo, Saturday night. It has been on for three

:31:36.:31:40.

weeks and then it had a break for the rug day. -- rugby. If people

:31:41.:31:45.

have not caught it, give us a synopsis. It is just bonkers. It is

:31:46.:31:57.

a game show about people's quick responses and their mental and

:31:58.:32:00.

physical agility and how quick their reflexes are. More importantly, the

:32:01.:32:05.

cameras that catch their reflexes on screen, it is incredible. I am often

:32:06.:32:09.

seeing it on TV for the first time, because I don't get to see it when I

:32:10.:32:13.

am presenting it. And Ken Bruce doing the voice-over is very funny.

:32:14.:32:17.

When the games are played in real-time, you can hardly see it. It

:32:18.:32:22.

is just second. But the joy of it is that if you are competitive, you

:32:23.:32:26.

want to do well, but you are not necessarily competing against the

:32:27.:32:30.

other person. You are desperate to make sure your reflex are first.

:32:31.:32:34.

Some of the games are very simple, whether it is try to catch a

:32:35.:32:37.

ping-pong ball or throwing a pot of paint! I bet that is fun. There is

:32:38.:32:47.

another one where we sit on giant balloons and they explode. Watching

:32:48.:32:53.

them on the day is funny in itself, but watching it back in slow-mo

:32:54.:32:57.

makes it a totally different show. The teams play in families. How

:32:58.:33:02.

would your family do? Are you competitive? No. My wife is very

:33:03.:33:09.

competitive. Seriously, to the point where I have to get her in a head

:33:10.:33:13.

lock to hold her down occasionally. She loves watching the show, and she

:33:14.:33:18.

is forever shouting at the TV. My children are competitive as well.

:33:19.:33:21.

One of the episodes coming up, we have got Austin Healey against Iwan.

:33:22.:33:29.

Watching two sportsmen, these guys are so competitive by nature. We

:33:30.:33:36.

should do a One Show version. Or EastEnders versus Corrie. Speaking

:33:37.:33:42.

of EastEnders, which do you prefer? Is it acting or do you like doing

:33:43.:33:46.

this type of stuff? I am first and foremost an actor, that is my

:33:47.:33:52.

passion. But back in the day in the 80s, when I was out of work as an

:33:53.:33:55.

actor, I got sidetracked into hosting game shows and doing the big

:33:56.:34:00.

TV Saturday night shows, whether it was the key numbers or win, lose or

:34:01.:34:04.

draw or the Shane Richie experience. But that was because I was out of

:34:05.:34:08.

work as an actor. Thankfully, I am not out of work as an actor at the

:34:09.:34:13.

moment. But EastEnders were kind enough to let me do this. You are

:34:14.:34:17.

early and for an audience. We came to see you doing panto, and have

:34:18.:34:22.

such a ball. We often played clips of people's early parts of their

:34:23.:34:28.

career and it is quite amusing. This one takes the biscuit!

:34:29.:34:39.

Here we go! Here we go!

:34:40.:34:42.

got to keep on dancing. got to keep on dancing.

:34:43.:34:47.

playing. playing.

:34:48.:34:53.

the passion. the passion.

:34:54.:35:03.

# Just walking through the door. Oh, that hurts! I loved your hair.

:35:04.:35:13.

My mullet. I was what, 21? That was a Saturday night special. And it was

:35:14.:35:23.

rubbish! No, it wasn't! I was a big fan at the time of David Bowie. I

:35:24.:35:27.

think Wham or just starting. The only place you could do stand-up

:35:28.:35:35.

comedy was on shows like that. I never wanted to be a singer, but

:35:36.:35:38.

they said, always come on with a song. Get on with the song! So short

:35:39.:35:43.

of having a load of dancers doing pom-poms around me, that was it.

:35:44.:35:49.

There were only three channels then. To see Shane's new game show,

:35:50.:35:55.

Reflex, it is on BBC One on Saturdays at 5:15pm. In the first

:35:56.:35:58.

half of the show, we saw how badly affected you have been by the

:35:59.:36:03.

floods. Still to come, we look more into the future and ask how and if

:36:04.:36:10.

we can flood-proof Britain. Here is Lucy, looking at the size of the

:36:11.:36:13.

task ahead. Flood defences in the UK have never

:36:14.:36:17.

been so important, and our most well-known flood defender is the

:36:18.:36:24.

Thames Barrier. What does the barrier actually do? What is it

:36:25.:36:28.

doing now? At the moment, the barrier is open, so it is letting

:36:29.:36:33.

the water from the Thames run out to the sea. At the next high tide this

:36:34.:36:38.

evening, the flood barrier will, and stop the sea water coming up the

:36:39.:36:44.

Thames. Without the Thames Barrier, floodwater travelling downstream

:36:45.:36:47.

would meet the tidal surge going the opposite way and could cause much

:36:48.:36:53.

greater flooding. If that happened, the sea water and the floodwater

:36:54.:36:58.

would meet and cause a temporary peak, and that would increase the

:36:59.:37:01.

flood risk in places like Teddington. Since it opened in

:37:02.:37:04.

biting 82, the barrier has had to close around 150 times. But one

:37:05.:37:09.

fifth of those has happened in the last few months, which illustrates

:37:10.:37:14.

how bad the conditions we are currently experiencing are. Does

:37:15.:37:17.

this mean London is completely safe from flooding? You can never say

:37:18.:37:25.

never. But this offer is about a one in 1000 year protection for the

:37:26.:37:29.

people of London. Everybody will be demanding this level of protection,

:37:30.:37:35.

won't they? We in the Environment Agency work extremely hard to ensure

:37:36.:37:39.

that every pound we spend delivers the maximum benefit in terms of

:37:40.:37:45.

people protected, people's lives and properties protected and people's

:37:46.:37:50.

businesses protected. But the events of the last few weeks have reminded

:37:51.:37:56.

us how destructive water can be. So is the answer to spend more money on

:37:57.:38:00.

defences, or do we just have to accept that whatever we do, flooding

:38:01.:38:05.

is going to happen? Professor Richard Ashley is a civil engineer

:38:06.:38:09.

who believes the UK has the know-how to cope with the floods. The UK is

:38:10.:38:16.

actually leading globally on floods. We know how to do it. What is

:38:17.:38:21.

holding us up is a lack of a goodwill. The Environment Agency

:38:22.:38:24.

have a backlog of schemes, all shown to have high benefit cost ratios,

:38:25.:38:29.

which are not being funded. If we had an infinite supply of money,

:38:30.:38:36.

could we hold back the water? We could go the way the Dutch have

:38:37.:38:41.

gone. They are investing 1 billion euros a year in 10,000 year

:38:42.:38:46.

protection schemes. Some of the most valuable land in towns and urban

:38:47.:38:53.

areas is actually on flood plains. It is perfectly possible to build on

:38:54.:38:58.

a flood plain. In Hamburg, there is a whole district which is being

:38:59.:39:05.

built to flood regularly. Yet it is a major commercial district. We can

:39:06.:39:11.

do it. It is not cheap. In terms of investment, where are we now and

:39:12.:39:14.

where do we need to be? We suggested that you would need to spend ?1

:39:15.:39:17.

billion a year to keep pace with climate change. We are nowhere near

:39:18.:39:22.

that level. We are below half ?1 billion a year. And falling. We need

:39:23.:39:28.

to implement adaptation to climate change measures across the board,

:39:29.:39:32.

not just in the flooding area. But politicians find this too difficult

:39:33.:39:38.

to do. It is to long-term thinking, not the year and now. The issues are

:39:39.:39:42.

not technical, they are political and economic. We will speak to Lucy

:39:43.:39:53.

later. So it needs to be raised to 1 billion. Eric Pickles was a bit

:39:54.:39:58.

cagey on that. We will see. Anyway, Iwan is in Bewdley in

:39:59.:40:01.

Worcestershire, a town which has the defences that other parts of the

:40:02.:40:08.

country are clamouring for. Yes, what a week of whether we have had.

:40:09.:40:12.

At the weekend, I was in Cornwall, chasing storms. It feels like the

:40:13.:40:17.

water is chasing me. This is the River Severn, the largest river in

:40:18.:40:21.

the UK, but in 2007, it burst its banks, it was disastrous. The M5was

:40:22.:40:31.

closed. The danger is tonight that just down the road, 18 miles away in

:40:32.:40:37.

Worcester, the water levels are up to five .65 metres. The Environment

:40:38.:40:44.

Agency are warning that it could peak tomorrow at about five .18

:40:45.:40:49.

metres. This is a beautiful town and everyone has come out. Everyone

:40:50.:40:53.

thinks they will stay dry, but will they? John Champion, local

:40:54.:40:58.

councillor. This barrier looks simple to me, but it is going to

:40:59.:41:04.

save the town? Absolutely. It is a complex system that looks simple,

:41:05.:41:08.

but does the job effectively. You can see the barrier is the whole

:41:09.:41:11.

length of the quayside tonight, keeping hundreds of houses drive.

:41:12.:41:16.

You must be slightly concerned, though. It is worse than in 2007,

:41:17.:41:20.

and I think it will be higher tomorrow. Obviously, we are planning

:41:21.:41:26.

for all scenarios, but we are confident so far that the barriers

:41:27.:41:30.

should keep the town dry. We will keep checking local media. I was

:41:31.:41:36.

chatting to a lady who said she has been here for 45 years. She said

:41:37.:41:40.

before the barriers, swans used to be swimming up the road. So they are

:41:41.:41:45.

doing their job at the moment, but is it money well spent? Absolutely.

:41:46.:41:50.

Tonight on Bob properties that should have water in them are bone

:41:51.:41:55.

dry because of the barriers. It is money well invested. We are seeing

:41:56.:41:59.

the town open for business tonight. People are using the shops and

:42:00.:42:01.

restaurants that would otherwise have been closed. It is vital for a

:42:02.:42:06.

town like this that the barriers are doing their job. So you feel lucky

:42:07.:42:11.

you have got this system in place, because other places are not so

:42:12.:42:16.

lucky. Absolutely. They are working as they should. Everyone I have met

:42:17.:42:21.

tonight has been delightful. It is a beautiful place. I hope you stay

:42:22.:42:27.

dry. Back to a very warm London. Usually seem to have it sussed. This

:42:28.:42:32.

time next year, we might see more of those. Time now to go to Marty's

:42:33.:42:37.

city of Leeds were new technologies planned to protect the city. For

:42:38.:42:41.

some areas of Britain, January 2014 has been the wettest since records

:42:42.:42:45.

began. Parts of the UK are suffering

:42:46.:42:48.

unbelievable damage, and there is a clear need for a national debate on

:42:49.:42:54.

flood warning and preparation. So, technology is being put into place

:42:55.:42:58.

to help addicts when and where floods may happen. Hopefully,

:42:59.:43:04.

prevent some in the future. In my home city of Leeds, there have been

:43:05.:43:09.

several major flood alerts in recent years. Adrian Gill is in charge of

:43:10.:43:15.

flood management. Here we have got a photograph taken from where we are

:43:16.:43:21.

standing in 2007 when we were within centimetres of water causing

:43:22.:43:25.

widespread disruption to the city centre and damage to property. This

:43:26.:43:29.

would have been catastrophic for the centre of Leeds, so the city is

:43:30.:43:35.

investing in major flood fences. The Environment Agency have designed a

:43:36.:43:40.

high-tech boat to find out what is happening in the River and exactly

:43:41.:43:44.

where the potential overflow points might be. Adrian, it is a lovely

:43:45.:43:50.

remote-controlled boat, but why is this a clever piece of technology?

:43:51.:43:57.

Firstly, we have a GPS unit on the top which tells us where the boat is

:43:58.:44:02.

on the river. It also has an acoustic device which sends sonar

:44:03.:44:04.

pulses down to the river bed, which measures the depth of the water and

:44:05.:44:08.

the velocity the water is travelling at. In the last few months, they

:44:09.:44:12.

have developed new software that allows them to make a 3-D map of the

:44:13.:44:17.

river channel. Here we have dark blue areas, which are the deep areas

:44:18.:44:22.

of the river. And the red areas are the shallow areas. It is knowing

:44:23.:44:31.

where the shallow areas are that help the team pinpoint bottlenecks,

:44:32.:44:33.

causing flooding when there is a huge surge of rainfall. With this

:44:34.:44:39.

information, they can come up with specific flood prevention plans. We

:44:40.:44:44.

are doing a number of things in the centre of Leeds. Raising walls,

:44:45.:44:49.

building new walls. It will be the first sitting in Britain to use

:44:50.:44:58.

adjustable weirs. We will be replacing two existing ones with two

:44:59.:45:03.

movable ones that can be lowered as the rivers rise. They can be dropped

:45:04.:45:06.

by one metre which will radically reduce the risk of flooding. Key to

:45:07.:45:12.

all this defence is having sufficient warning as to when the

:45:13.:45:16.

rain is coming. The Met Office used to rely on dedicated human weather

:45:17.:45:20.

spotters, but North Yorkshire is home to the finest station in a

:45:21.:45:25.

network of rainfall radar is home to the finest station in a network of

:45:26.:45:27.

rainfall radars, providing more precise rain data. Inside the dome

:45:28.:45:34.

we have a weather radar which is spinning around, sending out

:45:35.:45:38.

microwave radiation all the way around 360 degrees. The idea is that

:45:39.:45:44.

it picks up rain drops when they fall out of the clouds. The

:45:45.:45:50.

technology is so precise that it can detect tiny drops 100 miles away.

:45:51.:45:59.

Less than a millimetre. The particle size is so small that it does not

:46:00.:46:03.

make a splash when it hits the puddles. It can predict exactly

:46:04.:46:08.

where the rain is coming from and when. That yellow colouring is heavy

:46:09.:46:13.

rain and it is coming our way. How long will it take before it gets to

:46:14.:46:20.

us? At that speed, in the next hour. And how much? Maybe two millimetres.

:46:21.:46:26.

With a prediction like that, we have to put it to the test. With fierce

:46:27.:46:39.

winds blowing, the accuracy of the rainfall measurement will be

:46:40.:46:40.

compromised but the timing should not be affected. Within an hour, the

:46:41.:46:43.

rain rolls in. OK, about one millimetre. You said about two. It

:46:44.:46:46.

demonstrates that we can time the arrival of the rainfall and be

:46:47.:46:50.

pretty sure how heavy it will be. It is coming down much harder now.

:46:51.:46:56.

Let's go back! With the extra rain, Kevin's prediction proves to be spot

:46:57.:47:00.

on, but as current events have proved, it will take more than

:47:01.:47:03.

ground-breaking technology to make the flood seems today a thing of the

:47:04.:47:10.

past. Lucy has joined us now with Jaap

:47:11.:47:13.

Flikweert who advises on flood defences and coastal erosion

:47:14.:47:19.

management. How much, in terms of what we spend in the UK on flood

:47:20.:47:24.

defences, how does that compare to the Netherlands? It is about half

:47:25.:47:28.

compared to what we spend in the Netherlands. It is a very different

:47:29.:47:33.

situation of course. Hear about one sixth of the country is at risk and

:47:34.:47:36.

in the Netherlands, it is two thirds, the four main cities, so it

:47:37.:47:41.

is vital to the nation to sort it out. We did not expect this much

:47:42.:47:53.

rain, that is fair to say, but when you see the situation over here, do

:47:54.:47:56.

you think, goodness me, they are in real trouble? It is not that simple.

:47:57.:48:01.

The priorities are different. Once I had been here for a few years, I

:48:02.:48:07.

realised it was more a question of political priorities rather than the

:48:08.:48:10.

single national priority of stopping flooding. It is a national decision

:48:11.:48:18.

of how much to spend on it. You are nodding in agreement. The difference

:48:19.:48:22.

between Holland and here, apart from the geography, or perhaps because of

:48:23.:48:27.

the geography, keeping out the water is what being Dutch is, if you will

:48:28.:48:31.

forgive me. It is easy for politicians to make it a priority if

:48:32.:48:35.

two thirds of your land is below sea level. By god it has to be a

:48:36.:48:39.

priority. We spent half, but we have a bigger country to defend and more

:48:40.:48:45.

population. The amount that we do spend is a lot less per area or per

:48:46.:48:53.

person. There are actually about the same number of people at risk. With

:48:54.:48:59.

more rain predicted, people will be worried about being flooded. Lots of

:49:00.:49:03.

people have learned the hard way but what advice can you give? The first

:49:04.:49:08.

thing to say is that you have to take a lot of care. But water is

:49:09.:49:12.

horrible. Sewage, animal waste, contamination. It make sure you are

:49:13.:49:18.

wearing protective clothing, watch your step, look for manholes, sharp

:49:19.:49:22.

objects. Don't have anything to do with electrics in flood water. It

:49:23.:49:26.

sounds obvious but it is important to stress these things. People are

:49:27.:49:30.

in positions that they have not been in before. If you are insured, you

:49:31.:49:34.

need to contact your insurance company and make an appointment with

:49:35.:49:40.

your loss adjuster. That is absolutely fundamental. What else

:49:41.:49:44.

should you make sure you do in terms of insurance to make sure you can

:49:45.:49:57.

claim for as much as possible? It is so difficult but keep hold of all

:49:58.:49:59.

correspondents. I know letters might have washed away, but keep hold of

:50:00.:50:01.

everything, including receipts. Do something practical. Take a

:50:02.:50:03.

permanent marker and mark on the wall of a room that has been flooded

:50:04.:50:06.

where the highest watermark is, in all of the rings, not just one. This

:50:07.:50:14.

is just making sure your claim is valid. David asks why we don't build

:50:15.:50:23.

houses to a three tyre with a gap underneath -- two or three feet

:50:24.:50:33.

higher? Instead of getting the water away, we could build houses in a way

:50:34.:50:40.

that they don't get destroyed. That is what we see historically in

:50:41.:50:44.

Queensland and New Orleans, houses on stilts. They are still doing

:50:45.:50:49.

that. They are good ideas. Thank you. Please stick around. Tonight we

:50:50.:50:54.

are asking you to nominate people who have acted beyond the call of

:50:55.:50:58.

duty in bad weather and have put other people's needs before their

:50:59.:51:02.

own. 100 years ago in Winchester, another town where people are

:51:03.:51:06.

crossing their fingers as water levels rise tonight, one man's

:51:07.:51:10.

efforts were so heroic that he saved the city's Cathedral. Ever been

:51:11.:51:18.

swimming in a cathedral? Here in Winchester, it is a real

:51:19.:51:23.

possibility. This is the crypt, the lowest part of the cathedral. Today

:51:24.:51:28.

it is flooded. The crypt floods because the cathedral is built on

:51:29.:51:33.

land with a high water table. At the turn of the 20th century, the

:51:34.:51:37.

building developed large cracks and was in real danger of collapse. It

:51:38.:51:45.

needed underpinning with new foundations. The work began in

:51:46.:51:50.

1906. It would take six years and a Herculean effort by one man. And he

:51:51.:51:55.

was a deep sea diver. And this is the man himself. He is called

:51:56.:52:00.

William Walker and he saved this crumbling cathedral almost

:52:01.:52:04.

single-handedly with one of the most remarkable feats of diving ever

:52:05.:52:09.

achieved. The cathedral is built on a layer of peat. Over the ages, it

:52:10.:52:14.

had compressed. It was what lay beneath it that caused the problem.

:52:15.:52:19.

Every time they got down and dug through it, up the water would

:52:20.:52:25.

bubble. Why didn't they pump it out? The water is bubbling up, dragging

:52:26.:52:29.

with its solid material, so there is a very great fear that the

:52:30.:52:32.

subsidence will be increased by the pumping activity. The engineer in

:52:33.:52:38.

charge, Frances Fox, had an ingenious idea. William Walker, a

:52:39.:52:44.

diver for the Navy at Portsmouth dockyard, was recruited to work

:52:45.:52:50.

under water, manhandling bags of cement in specially dug trenches.

:52:51.:52:55.

Working entirely by feel, he would lay the cement bags at the bottom of

:52:56.:52:59.

the Trent, get out his diving knife and cut them open. -- the trench. He

:53:00.:53:06.

was working in a soup of cement, extremely nasty if you are working

:53:07.:53:11.

with your bare hands. Civilly created this field so they could

:53:12.:53:15.

safely pump out the water and then build the new foundations? -- so he

:53:16.:53:28.

created a seal? Yes, he worked six days a week and hardly had a

:53:29.:53:33.

holiday. One of the great stories of engineering. There were 26,000 bags

:53:34.:53:40.

of cement. The work allowed them to underpin the foundations of the

:53:41.:53:42.

cathedral and keep it standing until today. The Historical Diving Society

:53:43.:53:49.

has an exact replica of the suit. Wearing it gives me some insight

:53:50.:53:56.

into his achievement. And this is exactly what he would have one? It

:53:57.:54:01.

has not changed. The design goes back to the 1840s. It weighs 190

:54:02.:54:12.

pounds. That is more than me! Walker would have had a dedicated dresser

:54:13.:54:17.

to help put it on. And a pair of men to pump air into his helmet. This

:54:18.:54:23.

weighs a tonne. The helmet normally presses down on the chest, but it

:54:24.:54:27.

pushes your whole body forward so your back and neck are aching. It is

:54:28.:54:34.

about to get heavier. The weight, including lead boots and heavy brass

:54:35.:54:38.

plates, was required to keep him anchored underwater.

:54:39.:54:43.

These are just the tasks that Walker would have done, picking up sandbags

:54:44.:55:01.

and moving them, slowly, day after day, year after year, to build the

:55:02.:55:07.

foundations that saved the cathedral. This is brilliant. I am

:55:08.:55:13.

really enjoying myself. Wearing a replica of the suit has given me a

:55:14.:55:16.

small taste of the huge efforts he made in the mud filled trenches

:55:17.:55:21.

under Winchester Cathedral. Underwater, it is so much more

:55:22.:55:26.

comfortable. It is very different doing it in a warm swimming pool for

:55:27.:55:30.

ten minutes and it is doing it in cold, deep, dark waters every day,

:55:31.:55:39.

twice a day for years and years. What a hero. Thank you. Now it is

:55:40.:55:44.

time to go back to Wraysbury. How are things?

:55:45.:55:50.

I have something to show you. This is someone's kitchen door, UPVC. You

:55:51.:55:56.

can see the water is halfway up and squirting through the keyhole. That

:55:57.:56:02.

is what life is like for a lot of residents in Wraysbury and some of

:56:03.:56:06.

them have come to talk to our Flood Forum and get some advice. We are

:56:07.:56:14.

going to talk to Matt. Can you give an idea of the questions people are

:56:15.:56:18.

asking? I am giving advice on what to do if you have flooded. People

:56:19.:56:23.

pay insurance premiums for this kind of event. Are they trusting

:56:24.:56:30.

insurers? I am getting good feedback overall. People have learned lessons

:56:31.:56:34.

since 2007 when the response may not have been as good as it is now. Gary

:56:35.:56:41.

is from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. What is it that

:56:42.:56:46.

people have been asking you? Mostly structural problems, what to do when

:56:47.:56:51.

they have been flooded, resilience measures to resist flooding in the

:56:52.:56:56.

future. We have free consumer advice available on our website and also

:56:57.:57:00.

specialist surveyors like myself can come and look at the property and

:57:01.:57:02.

specialist surveyors like myself can come and look at the property and

:57:03.:57:06.

give future advice. Lovely. Good work. Mary, you have been through it

:57:07.:57:11.

and you have got the T-shirt. You know what these people are going

:57:12.:57:14.

through plus a bit more. What are they asking you? Really it is how to

:57:15.:57:19.

move forward from this and my advice is don't point the finger of blame.

:57:20.:57:25.

It is nobody's fault. We have to deal with this, move forward and

:57:26.:57:28.

work in partnership to make sure it does not happen again, and work

:57:29.:57:32.

together in harmony. Really important. Terrific, thank you. A

:57:33.:57:38.

very positive note to finish on. The people of Wraysbury really need that

:57:39.:57:43.

right now, quite frankly. More weather coming and it could get

:57:44.:57:47.

worse before it gets better. I can't believe the picture of those

:57:48.:57:51.

people's back door with what all the way up. Just awful. -- water all the

:57:52.:58:01.

way up. I have been a weather forecaster for 24 years and I have

:58:02.:58:06.

never seen a spell like this. There are lots of heroes out there. Brad

:58:07.:58:11.

from Eton was helping evacuate members of the public in Wraysbury.

:58:12.:58:19.

The North Somerset Young Farmers Club. They are collecting hay bales.

:58:20.:58:29.

An Essex Young Farmers, it is incredible what they are doing as

:58:30.:58:36.

well. And this is Sarah's daughter trying to organise food for the hard

:58:37.:58:41.

workers. And Flood heroes in Taunton, the drop-off centre,

:58:42.:58:45.

behind-the-scenes, sent in by Vicky Smith. A very big thank you to

:58:46.:58:51.

everyone who got in contact tonight. Very sorry if we could not

:58:52.:58:55.

answer your questions, we did not expect Eric Pickles to leave so

:58:56.:58:59.

soon. Thank you for joining us and it has been difficult to answer all

:59:00.:59:03.

the questions. Difficult for you across the country as well and our

:59:04.:59:07.

thoughts are with you. More on Newsnight tonight with Jeremy

:59:08.:59:13.

Paxman, presenting a live show from Hull. That is news to me! I have

:59:14.:59:21.

just read it. Thank you to Shane and tomorrow Timothy small will be here

:59:22.:59:25.

from seven o'clock as usual. -- Timothy Spall. Good night.

:59:26.:59:31.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

:59:32.:59:34.

Britain takes another battering. Hurricane force winds are hammering

:59:35.:59:38.

Wales and Northwest England. It has disrupted road and rail links and

:59:39.:59:41.

brought down power lines. A month's rain could fall in two days. Your

:59:42.:59:46.

local forecast coming up. Joanna Dennehy admitted killing

:59:47.:59:47.

three men. Today,

:59:48.:59:49.

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