The mighty River Severn is the longest in Britain and has an extensive history of destructive flooding.

Unfortunately, for the many communities built alongside it, climate change is likely to make that worse.

Not every aspect of every weather event, especially wind, for example, can be linked to our warming world.

But scientists are increasingly confident that the rising temperature is making rainfall more intense.

That, combined with rising sea levels impacting coastal communities, is helping to drive increasingly frequent and increasingly severe flooding up and down the country, including the flooding associated with the recent barrage of three storms in one week.

It’s why the government recently announced a £5bn flood and coastal defence strategy to help people adapt to what the Environment Agency calls the “unavoidable impacts of climate change”.

In fact, just before the COP26 UN climate change summit the Environment Agency’s chair Emma Howard Boyd issued an ominous warning.

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She said: “Some 200 people died in this summer’s flooding in Germany.

“That will happen in this country sooner or later, however high we build our flood defences, unless we also make the places where we live, work and travel resilient to the effects of the more violent weather the climate emergency is bringing.

“It is adapt or die.”

But not every home or business can be protected.

This is something Siobhán Connor and her teenage son Oscar have come to realise.

Their beautiful family home on the banks of the Severn in Shrewsbury has been flooded 17 times since 1998.

But now the floods are getting worse and happening more often – four in the last three years alone.

There are flood barriers on the ground floor doors and windows, but they did nothing to stop the water pouring in as the river rose.

The family’s “flood drill” is now well practised – when the warnings come, Oscar lifts the furniture onto tables, and they move valuables upstairs.

But even with preparation, there has been extensive damage – the walls are soaking, the new bathroom ruined, and Siobhán knows everything will be covered in a thick layer of muddy silt when the water finally recedes.

She said: “It’s just heartbreaking. We’ve tried so hard to adapt but I don’t know what more we can do. This flooding is unprecedented.”

Siobhán has started a local flood action group to push for more protection and support.

But she is worried that climate change will make things even worse, and that not enough help is coming.

She said: “We feel abandoned, we really do.”

But still, she is determined to stay.

“There are so many memories, this is our home. We are going to have to just live with it,” she said.

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