Mary Long-Dhonau, better known as Flood Mary, by the River Severn which flooded her home. Image: Flood Mary
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Mary Long-Dhonau’s 11-year-old son woke up screaming. His room was flooded with water and it reeked.
“It was the contents of the local drain,” Mary says. “There was quite a lot of sewage in it, and the smell… There are no words to describe the smell. It was absolutely rank. Even after the flood water was gone, we would lie in bed upstairs and still smell it.”
The drains had emptied out their guts. It was thigh-deep and a dark brown colour. “Having to wade through that with my family was horrific,” she recalls.
The family had just converted their playroom in their Victorian semi in Worcester, and all the toy boxes were upended by water and the toys were ruined, which was particularly difficult for her three-year-old son who had recently been diagnosed with autism.
Mary Long-Dhonau channelled her fears about the weather into activism. Image: Flood Mary
“The whole thing was absolutely devastating, as you can imagine, and we couldn’t move out because of his autism. He was a bit of a head banger and used to smash windows. We couldn’t stay in a hotel and it wouldn’t have been great in a rented property, so we stayed at home.”
That flood in 2000 was not the first but it was the worst they faced. It had rained so much that the River Severn had deluged the local sewage works, without warning, and after that Mary was terrified it would happen again. She lived in fear of the weather.
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It was a similar story for people who lived nearby. Her neighbour was agoraphobic and struggled to leave the house, and she had a nervous breakdown after her downstairs rooms were left covered in faeces. Another neighbour returned from her husband’s funeral to find her home flooded.
“Flooding can break people,” Mary says. “It really can, because it compounds whatever stuff people have got going on in their life. Your home is your sanctuary, where you can shut the door, put your slippers on, have a glass of wine.
“It’s somewhere you feel safe, and to have that violated by filthy stenching flood water is hugely traumatic. Many people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.”
Mary has channelled her fears and met with thousands of flood victims over the last 20 years. Known as Flood Mary, her focus is on raising awareness of flood risk and helped people prepare and recover.
“It has made me the kind of person that I am, donning the welly boots and starting protesting, saying this shouldn’t be happening and floodwater shouldn’t be violating my home. I got to know how other people were suffering and it drove me to keep going. I was focused on that rather than the trauma. It was because I had a focus that I managed to cope with it,” Mary says.
Floods are happening increasingly often, with around five million people in England and Wales living in flood risk areas. People are more likely to have their homes flooded than burgled, with an increasing threat as the weather becomes more temperamental amid the climate crisis.
“I know that for the thousands of people I’ve spoken to who have been flooded, the recovery from the flood is far worse than the flood itself,” Mary adds.
After her home was flooded in 2000, the plaster had to be knocked off and the electric sockets redone as they had dried faeces stuck in them. Mary grimaces as she says she has never seen so many condoms as there were in the manhole by her garden, and she recalls with disgust the rats which washed themselves in the pump meant to help stop the flooding. She also had to recover emotionally.
“When I was flooded, there was no help, no support, advice available for anybody. So from that moment, I started researching all about property, flood resilience products and what you can do to your home to help it recover after a flood. I’ve travelled round the country interviewing people who’ve been flooded and made their home flood recoverable,” Mary says.
Mary has taken on the floods herself – but she needs help and calls on policymakers to tackle the climate emergency. Image: Flood Mary
Her website Flood Mary is packed with information on how to cope with a flood, and she heads into communities to speak that have been badly affected. “The fact that I can help people and give people hope is my drive,” Mary says.
She takes with her what she calls a ‘floodmobile’, a house on wheels which is packed with around 50 different property flood resilience measures, which can be hired to take into communities at risk.
“Flooding is getting much worse and more regular. I’ve watched each flood get worse and be more impactful to people,” Mary adds. “There are food shortages as a result of flooding and, conversely, as a result of too much heat.
“I don’t think people are quite aware that climate change is going to make food scarce. I think a lot of people don’t realise what is waiting round the corner for them. We’re in a climate emergency now. It’s not something that is going to happen in years’ time.”
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