Couple living in caravan after losing 'everything' in flood

Phil Wadley and Sonia Ivers have been living in a caravan since Storm Babet hit in October.

A couple from Lincolnshire have said they are facing years of living in a caravan after their newly completed barn conversion was flooded in Storm Babet.

Phil Wadley and Sonia Ivers said they had lost "everything" in the flooding at Wood Enderby near Horncastle in October 2023.

Now, they have been forced to live in their garden and want an investigation into why they were flooded.

The BBC has approached the Environment Agency (EA) but it is yet to comment.

Mr Wadley said: "We've just put all our dreams, all that effort, all our money into one place and it's just been taken away.

"Something's gone drastically wrong because the beck never overfilled. It came across land and it's just wiped out everything that we own."

The couple had only just completed a £300,000 barn conversion when flood water caused widespread damage to the property.

The couple had just completed a three year barn conversion project when the flooding happened.

They put the cost of the building project at over £300,000 and said the financial cost amounted to much more when you added in their possessions.

The home at Wood Enderby near Horncastle will need to undergo repairs and renovations before the couple can move back in.

Sonia Ivers said: "I was watching it [the flood water] gradually getting higher and higher. I couldn't leave the property because the current was so fast.

"We can start again and we can rebuild again but now I just want huge flood defences around the property and an investigation into what happened.

"We've been dealt this horrific card and we want to make sure it never happens again."

In Lincolnshire, 850 properties suffered internal flooding since the Storm Babet last autumn.

At the time, officials said two month's worth of rain had fallen in a day and described the storm as a "one in a thousand year event".

In March, the Louth and Horncastle MP, Victoria Atkins, held a public meeting. At the time she said the EA had "very serious questions to be answered".

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