Full impact of floods revealed as GMCA seeks to prevent future issues

The full extent of the devastation caused by flooding across Greater Manchester in December has been revealed.

A month after Storm Eva brought unprecedented rain to the region, a number of homes and businesses remain affected by the water and councils are helping residents and business owners with their recovery efforts as well as working to try and prevent similar issues in the future.

A report will be presented to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Friday 29 January which details the impact across Greater Manchester, discusses the response and identifies support now being offered to those affected.

Tony Lloyd, Interim Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “Many people in Greater Manchester started 2016 with fear and trepidation because of the damage caused by unprecedented flooding.

“At the time, I gave my thanks to everyone who worked non-stop to help those in need and my appreciation goes to them again for what they did in the immediate aftermath and in the month since.

“Along with the individual assistance to support our communities in moving on, I’m very keen to address the issue of flood defences and want to ensure it moves up the local and national agendas in the wake of what happened in GM.”

Councillor Mike Connolly, GMCA lead for Resilience and Civil Contingencies, said: “The response from all the agencies involved, and from the GM community, was little short of magnificent and, as a result of their efforts, there wasn’t one single fatality or serious injury directly related to the floods.

“More than 2,400 properties and 521 businesses in eight of our ten boroughs were affected so it’s important we now do what we can to help people repair their homes, lives and businesses, learn what lessons we can about the response and take steps to try and prevent this happening again.”

A meeting has been arranged between the Interim Mayor and the Environment Agency to discuss improving GM's flood defences.

The report to the Combined Authority identifies a number of ways in which funding has been and will be made available to those affected by flooding.

Working groups, involving local councils and organisations such as United Utilities and the Environment Agency, have been established to identify, repair and replace all damaged infrastructure.

Greater Manchester Resilience Forum will hold a full debrief involving the agencies that provided the immediate response and will review what took place, sharing any lessons learned with all authorities.