Flooded and forgotten: the UK’s waters are rising and we’re being kept in the dark | John Harris

<p>Rescue operations in Wales, submerged railway lines in Cornwall – these events are ever more common. So why have we utterly failed to prepare?</p><p>As autumn blurs into winter, the news is once again filling up with a familiar story: overflowing rivers, inundated streets and overwhelmed infrastructure. Since Friday, England, Wales and Ireland have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/14/storm-claudia-torrential-rain-england-wales-weather">hit by the storm</a> the Spanish meteorological agency has elegantly named Claudia, with grim results. One place in particular massively bore the brunt of it all: the Welsh border town of Monmouth, where the raging River Monnow spilled into the streets, people had to be <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74jevlv19go">rescued from their homes</a> and drones captured <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/monmouth-flooding-storm-claudia-drone-video-b2866094.html">aerial views of the scene</a>, showing fragile-looking buildings suddenly surrounded by a huge clay-brown swamp.</p><p>Claudia and her effects made it into the national headlines – but mostly, local and regional floods now seem too mundane to attract that kind of attention. Eleven days ago, Cumbria saw <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyv85lqjr43o">submerged roads</a>, blocked drains and over 250 flood-related problems reported to the relevant councils. Railway lines in Cornwall <a href="https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/live-floods-halt-trains-between-10627475">were submerged</a>; in Carmarthen, in west Wales, there were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyz2dy6zdno">reports</a> of the worst floods in living memory. But beyond the areas affected, who heard about these stories? Such comparatively small events, it seems, are now only t