Debenham residents still dealing with flooding issues a year after Storm Babet
Storm Babet caused chaos across Suffolk in October last year, with hundreds of homes flooding
Residents in Debenham say they're still dealing with the consequences of Storm Babet nearly a year on.
In October last year, the village saw a huge amount of rainfall causing rivers to burst their banks, cars to become submerged and over 70 residential and commercial properties to flood.
Nearly a year on and many homes still sit empty as the owners have been unable to return, due to damage not being repaired.
Lawrence's story
Lawrence LeMay, pictured in the rowboat, has been a resident in Debenham for over 50 years, but last year the water rose from the storm, and it ended up inside his bungalow.
He moved quickly, grabbing his possessions and moving them to higher places, but he faced a bigger challenge when he realised he couldn't leave his home.
"The biggest concern (I had) was getting out of this house because the water outside was pretty deep... it would have been dangerous for me to have walked out because it was a torrent, it was rushing water."
He heard a knock on his window to find another resident with a boat. Lawrence then climbed out of the window and was taken to Dove Cottage, where locals were all working together to try and help as many people as possible. Lawrence was provided with lots of hot cups of tea and blankets to stay warm.
He told us he's incredibly grateful for all the help he has received: "It's surprising how people, that I didn't know, have come and offered without any asking on my part, things that I really needed or wanted in the way of help and they've been terrific."
But unfortunately for Lawrence, and like many others, he couldn't return to his home and had to find somewhere else to live.
It is only recently he's returned after the repairs on his house were more or less completed - 10 months later:
"I had no trouble with the insurance companies. My motor car which was flooded out - I worked it out within £200 of what I expected to recieve, that can't be bad.
"Regarding the insurance of the materials and what else was in the house, I got what I asked for."
But he told us, his bungalow no longer feels like home: "The whole bungalow was flooded, basically everything was lost...
"Things are back to more or less normal, but it's difficult because there is no original furniture or anything original really, that I remember from my previous life...
"From a home, it's changed to a dwelling and that's about the simplest and easiest way to put it... it's not really home any more as such, but maybe that will change."
One item Lawrence was able to keep safe was a photo from his wedding day with his wife who sadly passed away.
Lawrence told us how much he loved her and he very much feels that he is still married to her.
Adele Wyse's Story
Adele Wyse from Wetheringsett lives in a cottage, and told us the water rose to the second step in her home.
Adele first began to notice the water pooling in her back garden, when it began to get worse she went to grab towels from her airing cupboard only to realise the towels were already wet and that the water had been rising from her floorboards.
Unlike Lawrence, Adele has managed to stay in her home, but it hasn't been without its difficulties.
She told us about the damages her property has faced: "Underfloor heating from a pump in the garden no longer works... the gas cooker, we have a gas hob and an electric oven, the gas feed into the house got flooded, so that didn't work, water got into my freezer."
Adele and her husband chose to rip up the carpets as soon as possible, once the water had subsided, to try and help everything dry out quicker.
She called her insurance company on the day but was unable to get through due to high demand.
"I managed to get hold of them (insurance) on the Saturday... I emailed them and then by Saturday afternoon someone called me back and spoke to me on the phone, so they were really good and quite quick to start with."
Adele chose to order dehumidifiers and a skip without going through insurance as she thought there would be a large demand for these items.
Her insurance company then asked her to start pulling together a list of everything they'd lost, but she told us it was around 3 weeks before anyone came out to help them.
Adele told us that she felt they weren't making any progress with the company and so in January 2024 she reached out to the ombudsman and reported them.
"Come March, still nothing had happened so I went to a solicitor.
"A lady contacted me, because she worked for solicitors and put me in touch with one of her colleagues, and got him involved and literally within a couple of weeks the insurance company finally agreed that they would pay out, but 7 months later they still haven't paid out, but they did admit that they were going to."
Around 2 months ago Adele and her husband were asked to get their house ready so construction could start, so they moved upstairs.
"Builders came and started stripping out downstairs, they were there for five days and now they've gone off and they're not coming back until November because they've got another job on in October.
"We're now living upstairs with a small little limited kitchen and the builders aren't coming back for another month."
Parish Councillors say they've been working to ensure they have effective plans in place should Debenham flood again, while some residents have installed flood defences in front of their homes so that if water levels rise it will be less likely to enter their property.