One year on from the floods which forced Bootle residents out of the homes, the Liverpool ECHO visited the street to speak to the people affected and examine the impact on the community
Lindsey Smith, 44, outside her home on Bulwer Street in Bootle(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“It was like living in Beirut!” says Linda Crilly, 70, as she tries to describe the aftermath of the Bulwer Street flood last year. Like so many other residents, Linda’s home was flooded with dirty water after a prolonged period of heavy rain and a ‘software fault’ in a United Utilities sewer system.
Emergency services were called to Bulwer Street in Bootle on September 30 last year after water started gushing into people’s homes, with many requiring rescue boats to get out safely.
It was the second major flooding incident reported on this road in the last 14 years and left dozens of residents effectively homeless. Their living spaces became submerged in dirty water, ruining household items such as TVs and sofas as well as personal mementos and family heirlooms.
Linda was at a celebration in Southport when she got a phone call off her husband to say water was coming in through the back of the house again. Linda said ‘again’ because she and her husband were also residents of Bulwer Street when it was flooded back in 2013.
Flooding on Bulwer Street in Seaforth, September 2024(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Because of that experience, Linda decided they were going to stay in the house during the clean-up process, having moved out into temporary accommodation the last time. But when she considers everything they went through, she is still conflicted about whether it was the right thing to do.
Linda describes the immediate aftermath of last year’s flood: “It was like living in Beirut! That was the way I described it at the time. It looked like it was.
“My husband and myself had already made the decision that we weren’t going to leave the house, because when I think, when you’re not there, you can get forgotten about.
“They had to dig up the living room floor so we had to go missing for a full day while they dug this up, and then they laid a new floor, but they used tarmac. The whole house smelled like a road!”
“I still say United Utilities have not given us enough information. They just keep saying that it won’t happen again. They’re hoping it won’t happen again, but they’re not giving us any concrete evidence that they’ve done anything at all.”
Like many other residents, Linda hates it when it rains because of the potential for flooding, she said: “I personally don’t look out the window anymore, but my husband does, and he’s like ‘the street is starting to flood again’.
“I’ve got to the stage now where I think, I’m not King Canute, I can’t hold it back. If the rain is going to come in, it’s going to come in.”
Linda and John Crilly at home on Bulwer Street in Bootle(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Flood events in Sefton rose by more than 70% during the year before the Bulwer Street flood, while average rainfall in September 2024 increased by 150-200%, according to a report published by Sefton Council.
In terms of the cause of the flooding on Bulwers Street, Sefton Council’s official report stated: “Whilst the area is known to have significant risk of flooding from surface water, the main cause of the flooding during this event was due to a failure of the automated control system in the combined sewer, operated by United Utilities.”
Joan Porter, 64, said she is a ‘three time veteran’ of the Bulwer Street floods. Joan remembers with dread the events of September 30, 2024 and the subsequent seven months trying to restore her home.
When the rains started, Joan said she was on her way back from the Asda and got a call from her husband who said the entire street was flooded, “I pulled up to the street and all the shopping just got lashed because we went into survival mode.”
That night, Joan said the seriousness of their situation ‘hit them like a hammer’ and they had to go and stay with their daughter. They had spoken to other residents who were experiencing flooding for the first time, many of whom optimistically assumed the clean-up would take a few days, but Joan knew differently.
She said: “People were put up in apartments for months on end, and in areas they had no connection to and didn’t want to be in. We went to our daughters and we were there for six months.”
Joan Porter, 64, on Bulwer Street in Bootle(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Joan showed us around her home which is fully refurbished and she has spent a lot of time and money trying to make it into a home again. However, it’s still difficult for her to relax, knowing it could be taken away again, she said: “When it’s heavy rain, you’re just constantly looking out the window, watching that grid, making sure it goes down.
“You’re just you’re living on your nerves and we’re all living in fear.”
Joan said she is not reassured by United Utilities explanations for the flooding: “Whatever they say, it’s not ‘if’ it happens again, it’s ‘when’ it happens again. They forget that I’ve heard them say ‘it wouldn’t happen again’ last time, and look what happened.”
United Utilities conducted its own investigation and said a ‘software issue’ prevented the system from operating as expected. Its current position is that the issue has been resolved and confirmed it has implemented additional measures to ensure the ‘long-term resilience of our system and minimise the risk of flooding’.
A United Utilities spokesperson said: “We understand that flooding is a huge concern for residents in the area and remain committed to doing everything we can to ensure the long-term resilience of the sewer network.
“Since last year’s flooding, we have implemented several measures, including installing more sensors in our network, manually monitoring our system during periods of heavy rain, and investing £11m to enhance the local sewer network to minimise the risk of flooding.
“We will continue to play our part in rebuilding the local community and providing support where needed.”
However, that may be easier said than done as residents told the Liverpool ECHO about the long-term psychological and emotional impacts of the floods and the fear of being forced out of their homes again.
Lindsey Smith, 44, has a 15-year-old-daughter who is autistic, and said the impact of last year’s flooding has left a mark on both of them, adding: “It’s really hard because I try to reassure her it won’t happen again, but deep down, I know she doesn’t believe that.
Emergency services help residents during flooding on Bulwer Street in Seaforth, September 2024(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“When it happened, we were at Bootle Strand and when we got back the water was already going into the house. I remember my daughter panicking, she thought it was going take over the entire house.”
Lindsey said the aftermath was a blur. She was one of the people who were put in temporary accommodation and spent seven months in a hotel apartment in Liverpool city centre, cut off from family and friends.
She said: “I can’t tell you the toll it’s had on my health. I remember walking around in that sewage water and it makes me feel sick. You do get flashbacks about it.
“It was an awful time for us and I don’t want to ever experience anything like that ever again.”