Our Story
Hi everybody and welcome to Afterflood. If you are here, I guess you have had a flood or are worried about the possibility of flooding.
Well, the 1st thing you need to know is that flooding is very traumatic! You may well already be in that space. But the 2nd thing you need to know is that it can and will get sorted out and that is where we come in, to help!
Just briefly, a bit about us…..
We are Steve & Abi, and we have been catastrophically flooded twice in the past 6 years. Our house does back on to a waterway but river is an exaggeration of what it is. It is called the micker brook and on an average day is a very benign waterway which is no more than a few cm deep. In fact, it is one of the reasons we bought the house! It is a lovely spot and we get ducks, herons, kingfishers etc. Made lots of dog walker friends over the wall during covid and feels like you are away from everything whilst being in a town. We bought the house 11 years ago and it had never flooded in its history before then and looking at the water you would never suspect that it was going too!
What has changed?
Climate change, poor maintenance of the river system, an overwhelming strain on the sewage systems and a flurry of house/road building has resulted in us being in constant worry about the possibility of flooding. In both floods the water has come up 20 ft in the river and in the latest flood an overwhelming of the sewage systems meant we were flooded from both the back and the front. After the 1st flood in July 2019, we were told it was a 1 in 100 year flood and “unprecedented” set of circumstances etc etc. I guess we didn’t think it would happen again on new years eve/day 2025. You can see by the pictures how devastating the floods were to our property and our lives. There is also a link to our appearance on Granada news!
Our Aims
We understand that lots of people may be in a similar position to ourselves and we have learnt lots about flood resilience and recovery over the past 6 years. So now we would love to be able to help others who find themselves struggling with flooding. At no point across this website, do we ever call ourselves experts and all the info and help are based on our lived experience and doesn’t replace expert advice where needed! What we have learnt though, could be very useful to you and covers things like dealing with the insurance, building back, flood resilience and how to get the best outcomes for you when dealing with systems and infrastructure that at times feels like its actively working against you and not for you. We hope to be able to save you some of the heartache, worry and provide a forum for questions and advice.
Us
Steve Churchley
Abi Churchley
Here are some pics of the devastation and rebuilding works floods cause. It’s a mixture of pics from 2019 and 2025.
