There has recently been yet another increase in rainfall throughout the UK, and due to the fact that some towns have not yet recovered from flooding a few weeks ago, landslips are occurring causing damages to houses and mandatory evacuations of homes.
In Ystalyfera in the Upper Swansea Valley, there have been two landslips which have brought thousands of soil down onto roads and houses, with residents from eleven homes having to spend the night in a leisure centre after being evacuated. Pauline Jones was just one resident who was evacuated from her home, whom said “First of all we could hear the crackling of wires coming down and then the police were banging on the door to say ‘could you leave the property – is there anywhere you can go? And so we went over to my daughter’s and they kindly took us in the van. The street light was just blown to bits – all blue sparks coming from it.”
It has been reported that council engineers are due to carry out an inspection of the damage, especially as owners of houses further down the slope are becoming concerned due to the fact that rubble has been left overhanging on the spot and could potentially fall onto their properties. John Flower, Neath Port Talbot’s council’s environment director said that a stretch of road up to two hundred yards was half covered in mud up to four feet. He went on to say “Like many steep-sided valleys in Wales, there is continual movement but here we have seen some dramatic movement that has led to large deposits of material on the highway. It has brought down many trees. You can see trees at odd angles on the side of the mountains that are about to lose their roots.”
Landlords that own houses in Wales and are worried about the effects of flooding and landslips are advised to call their landlord insurance providers to discuss what they can do to protect their properties, or how their insurance providers can help them should the worse happen.