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A 95-year-old woman who spent 10 months living in a local Wetherspoons after her home was destroyed by severe flooding has died without ever being able to return. Jean Powell was among the residents displaced when the River Monnow overflowed in south Wales during Storm Claudia, leaving many still grappling with trauma and slow repairs a year later.
Displaced by Record Floods
Jean Powell was evacuated from her flat in the early hours of 15 November after almost a month’s worth of rain fell within 24 hours, causing the River Monnow to surge to 18 times its normal level. The severe weather event, classified as a one-in-75-year occurrence, overwhelmed local defences built 35 years prior and flooded more than 400 properties in the town. Having no close family to care for her, Jean took temporary refuge in a hotel room above Monmouth’s Wetherspoons pub following a night sleeping on a neighbour’s chair.
According to her friend and neighbour Wyn Smith, Jean spent nearly 10 months staying above the pub in the town’s main square, aside from a brief three-night stay at a local Premier Inn over Christmas when the Wetherspoons was closed. “Jean used to say, when am I going home? All she wanted to do was come back home and we couldn’t fulfil that,” said Wyn. Staff at the pub looked after her by bringing her food, but living in a single room took a heavy toll on her health as the months wore on. Jean passed away in September, shortly before displaced residents were due to move back into the Chippenham Court retirement complex following a £1m refurbishment.
Lasting Trauma for Residents
The devastation left behind by Storm Claudia continues to haunt families across Monmouth, where many residents remain displaced in rented accommodation, Airbnbs, or care homes. Emily Frost and her young family were evacuated on a lifeboat when floodwaters rushed toward their end-of-terrace cottage. Awakened by the coastguard with only five minutes to spare, Emily recalled stepping out into waist-deep water to reach the rescue raft while celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary. The family spent six months in rental housing while rebuilding the ground floor of their home, and Emily noted that her young sons still display anxiety whenever it rains.
Jennifer and Alan Morgan faced a similar ordeal when floodwaters struck their 18th-century cottage just as they were completing a five-year renovation. Jennifer, 70, described the past year as an absolute living nightmare that robbed her of sleep and delayed their return home until next summer. Official estimates indicate that roughly 275,000 properties in Wales are at risk of flooding, alongside 400,000 in Scotland and 6.3 million properties in England.
Official Warnings and Future Preparations
An official Section 19 report into the disaster noted that severe flood warnings for parts of Monmouth were issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) more than two hours after town defences had already been breached. Emily, who had signed up for free flood alerts, went to sleep because the rain had stopped at midnight, unaware of the sudden deluge approaching. The report recommended reviewing the timing of severe flood warnings across the Monnow catchment and evaluating the effectiveness of the local alert service and town centre defences.
NRW stated that it reviews its response and warning thresholds after every major incident, adding that less than a third of people in Wales living in flood-risk areas are currently signed up to receive phone or email warnings. The Welsh government has made £85m available this year for flood and coastal erosion schemes across Wales, including £1.4m directed to Monmouthshire. Meanwhile, local authorities and environmental agencies are working on clearing drains, ditches, and rivers, while residents like Emily have installed additional property flood barriers through advice from groups like Flood Mary.
Sara Pearson of NRW explained that the agency is examining its flood modelling to minimize future impacts as climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather. “We’re seeing flooding that we’ve never experienced before and with climate change that’s set to increase. We can’t prevent flooding, but we can help minimise the impact,” she stated.
