ReutersPeople are rallying together to help householders and businesses hit by unprecedented flooding in Monmouth, according to the local MP.
“This community is incredibly resilient and kind,” said Catherine Fookes, as the town’s leisure centre has been open to people who were evacuated from their properties.
A church is also acting as a drop-off point for donations including clothes and local businesses have been providing hot food.
A major incident has been declared in the town by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service with crews helping dozens of people to safety.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has issued four severe flood warnings in Monmouth amid concern of a “significant risk to life” with the River Monnow reaching record levels, exceeding those recorded during Storm Dennis in 2020 and Storm Bert in 2024.
The Monmouthshire MP said it was a “really worrying time now for residents and businesses” and, while the “big clear up” continued, its existing flood defences would need to be reconsidered.
“The flood defences did hold in a similar situation in 2020 but this flood, this amount of water, coming very fast in a short space of hours, was most definitely unprecedented,” she told BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement.
“I do think now with climate change and, with the amount of big weather events that we’re getting, that we do have to relook at flood defences.”
She said she would be seeking “more money for residents and more money for the clean-up, but also more money for those flood defences”, with flooding also at Abergavenny and nearby Skenfrith village which have been “flooded every single year for the past five years”.
“One of the most amazing things when I went to Monmouth leisure centre yesterday was the incredible staff and the volunteers just coming in off the street and saying, ‘I’ll look after this family, I can take that family’ and friends of people in there rallying round and taking people with cats and dogs and so on that couldn’t go to hotels into their houses.”
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it dealt with more than 80 callouts by Saturday afternoon.
Susie Martinez, 42, described how she and her sons, Louis, nine, and Joey, five, were rescued from their flat in Monmouth on Saturday at 03:30.
“We had to climb out of the window and into a boat,” she said.
“It was terrifying.”
Business owner Catherine Hall said her shop remained open to customers despite the damage.
“It’s six weeks until Christmas and I don’t know what will happen before then.
“It’s devastating. There’s thousands and thousands worth of stock gone.”
The MP urged shoppers not to stay away from Monmouth while Christmas shopping in the coming weeks to ensure flood-hit businesses continuing their clean-up on Sunday did not miss out on trade.
“There are businesses open there today so please don’t just avoid Monmouth for the next six weeks because we will clear up fast,” she said.
