What's Happening? Damage to roads - need to be rebuilt

Flooding in 2007 in the UK In the summer of 2007 there was a series of destructive floods across the UK. The most severe occurred in Northern Ireland, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, and South Wales. May to July 2007 was the wettest in Britain since records began in Extreme storms resulted in huge levels of surface water on the ground and roads, which overloaded drainage systems, and broke river banks and flood defences. The level of disruption, economic cost and social distress turned the floods into a national catastrophe. 16 people died, 100s of people had to be rescued, 48,000 homes and 6,000 businesses were affected. Public water and power utilities were disrupted and there were threats of blackouts across entire regions.The Environment Agency calculates that the flooding in England alone cost the economy £3.2 billion.

What Costs? Who Pays? Around 48,000 homes were affected, each costing between £20,000 and £30,000 to repair; A quarter of affected homeowners were not fully insured; The cost for flooded businesses averaged between £75,000 and £112,000; Agriculture suffered losses of £50 million including from ruined crops on flooded land; Damage to infrastructure such as roads, water supplies and power networks was £660 million; 400,000 pupil days at schools were lost, valued at £12m including the lost earnings of parents. (Source: The costs of the summer 2007 floods in England, January 2010, Environment Agency)