An 83-year-old woman who drowned in severe flooding during Storm Babet had no flood defences protecting her home, an inquest has heard.
Maureen Gilbert was found by her son Paul ‘floating in the water’ in her home in Derbyshire on the morning of October 21.
She was one of at least seven people who died as a result of the storm which left thousands of homes without power across the UK.
Maureen had been at her home in Tapton Terrace, Chesterfield, when the nearby River Rother burst its banks.
Assistant coroner Matthew Kewley told the inquest that her cause of death was drowning.
Neil Longden, who was the Environment Agency’s operations manager for Yorkshire, gave evidence to the inquest and was asked why there were no flood defences near Tapton Terrace, which is next to the River Rother.
Mr Longden said: ‘The answer really is you can build something, but someone has to pay for it.
‘There is a feasible solution to the problem but funding, and potentially the planning process, may put that at risk.
‘There are thousands of people at flood risk around the country. You would have that challenge in many locations around the country.’
He said that Tapton Terrace is susceptible to flooding because the land is low, several water sources come together, and the fact there are no flood defences.
Neighbours previously described how five feet of water engulfed the inside of their properties in Tapton Terrace ‘within minutes’ of the river bursting its banks.
Mr Longden said Storm Babet was ‘one of the most significant storms’ he has been involved in because of the intensity of the rainfall, adding: ‘It was a different type of storm than I have experienced before.’
The inquest heard that in 2018, a storage reservoir began to be used to reduce the peak flow further down the River Rother during heavy rainfall.
Mr Longden agreed the reservoir was the ‘only significant step’ taken between 2007, when Chesterfield residents previously experienced severe flooding, and Storm Babet in 2023.
Mrs Gilbert’s son told Sky News at the time of his mother’s death that he had attempted to secure her house with flood defences.
He said in October 2023: ‘Everybody on the street did as much as they could on the pretext that the water would come.’
Mr Gilbert said at the time of her death that he found his mother ‘floating in the water’ when he forced a window open.
According to the Met Office, Storm Babet caused the wettest three-day period on record in the Midlands, with around 400 homes in Chesterfield evacuated.
The inquest, which is expected to last five days, will continue on Tuesday morning.
Maureen, who neighbours said had barely left the house in years, lived downstairs in the two-story home as she was unable to go upstairs – but waters made their way into her home at ‘chest height’, and she was unable to escape.
Writing on a fundraising page at the time, Mrs Gilbert’s daughter-in-law Kaye said: ‘After a sleepless night, my husband and son found my 83 year old, housebound, mother-in-law, had passed away.
‘She had unfortunately been unable to escape upstairs at the speed the water levels were rising.
‘Not only do we have an uninsured house as the excess for flood damage was over £10,000 to clean and restore but a funeral to pay for all whilst grieving.
‘She lived on the street all her life, rebuilding after the 2007 flood was hard for us and her but this is just devastating. We now only have memories as everything else is gone.
‘My husband put his mothers flood defences up to his chest in the doorways and made preparations to secure the house as he has done many times during such weather warnings.
‘However, when the river burst, the water just came pouring over at rapid speed and the defences did very little.
‘The waters were much higher than the 2007 flood and came with a faster flow and pressure which resulted in my husband being stopped from trying to enter the property to check on his mum.’
A heartbroken friend said of Maureen: ‘She was such a character, she was a massive football fan, she was a big Liverpool fan and followed Chesterfield too.
‘I’m devastated, it’s just heartbreaking it could have been allowed to happen. I think questions need to be asked.
‘Surely there should be a central database of housebound residents so they can be made a priority for help?’