Suffolk farmer heroes of Storm Babet now count cost

They were widely praised for their efforts after they rode to the rescue in their tractors - working tirelessly into the night to free people who were stuck, and to get schoolchildren home to their families.

Plucking a driver from his car window as the waters rose and pulling vehicles out of puddles were just some of the dramatic rescues they performed.

A year on, and some farmers are still counting the cost of the floods - which destroyed crops and caused insurance premiums to shoot up.

Kris Grzelak was supposed to be on a day off on October 20 last year - but instead was co-ordinating rescue efforts for schools and stranded motorists after realising the scale of the disaster.

He is farm manager at Tuckwell Farms - a 2,000-acre business at Kettleburgh Lodge, Framlingham - and could only watch helplessly as his wheat fields disappeared under the deluge.

But he and his team felt they could do something to help those stuck in flood-stricken villages.

Babet rescuers Mark Farrington, Will Lawrence, Kris Grzelak, Kai Burch and Mick Copping (Image: Charlotte Bond) They spent the day getting children out of Easton Primary and Brandeston Hall school as well as helping others caught out by the rising waters. In all, a five-strong team of volunteers from Tuckwells, helped more than 50 people out.

"We just drove around trying to get stranded people out of the water basically.

"I think the guys were pulling people out until about 11pm that evening," he recalled.  "It was just rain on a biblical scale."

He added: "I think anybody with the ability to help out would have done the same thing really. Farmers have got the equipment."

Tuckwell Farms has recently joined forces with neighbour Ben Larter of Plant Well Farms based in Framlingham to form a partnership. Combined, this farms just under 5,000 acres of land in an area that was badly hit by Babet.

"We lost a lot of crops that day," said Kris. "That has really had an impact on us financially going into next year. We have just harvested those crops and I reckon we were at least 25% down on yield if not more. If it didn't wash the crop away  the crop just sat there rotting. 

"It was predominantly wheat which we lost and anyone who didn't have crops in by that point were basically forced to grow spring crops so it has been a really tricky year if I'm honest."

A year on and although the ground is not as saturated as it was last year, the wet weather has again hampered seed drilling. "It's a complete nightmare - it seems a little bit of déjà vu," he said.

"Last year our business probably lost maybe 150/200 acres. This year we have not lost anything yet - we just haven't got it in the ground. We just saw a lot of money gone down the drain. It's not what we want. We have got an added problem that crop prices are pretty poor at the moment."

With no long, dry spell forecast, it's proving another challenging year for planting seeds, he added.

Overall, he is planting around 2,500 acres of wheat this year and in the tough, muddy conditions has about 75% in the ground. "We would expect to be nearly finished by now," he said.

A view from a tractor on a rescue mission at Sir Robert Hitcham's primary at Debenham during Storm Babet (Image: Victoria Gascoyne-Cecil) Suffolk National Farmers' Union (NFU) chairman Glenn Buckingham, who farms the Helmingham Estate, at Framsden, near Debenham, recalled how - like many farmers - he felt compelled to go out in his tractor and help during Storm Babet.

"It was one of the most exhausting days I have ever had. Basically I started at 7.30 in the morning and didn't stop until 8.30 that evening - and I think I was handed a sandwich at one point," he said.

"I think we knew it was going to rain but I don't think anyone expected the biblical situation we were to find." 

Glenn Buckingham (Image: Denise Bradley) He started out by moving earth in an effort to steer the water away from homes and down into ditches and drains - but it soon became clear the attempt was futile as the water kept rising.

People had gone to work and to school - and now the battle was on to get home safely before the situation got any worse. Glenn started by helping to get the Helmingham Estate staff home. Then it was about trying to get schoolchildren back to their villages.

He encountered one woman trying to get to work in Ipswich who abandoned her car south of Helmingham.

His tractor was full but when he returned and found her still trying to wade through the puddles, he picked her up and took her to her home in Dennington.

Farmers "reacted like they always do" when there is bad weather and tried to help out, he said. He found out later one man stuck at Framsden slept in his car all night because he couldn't get through.

Farmer Guy Hayward of Wickham Market has had a frustrating year since Storm Babet. His fields were flooded and £40k worth of fences destroyed putting his livery business at risk.

Three homes which he rents out at his farm were also flooded, and it took until August this year to complete the repair works. 

"I now can't have flood cover - they've taken that off," he said. He also had to pay a £7,500 excess each on two of the three homes.

Further deluges on his fields this year have only added to his woes. He has been waiting for Environment Agency workers to clear silt from under a road bridge over the River Deben which spans his land and was frustrated when a five-strong team turned up to carry out the work at the end of September, only to leave because conditions were too wet.

He feels that the problems are only going to get worse.

"Let's not forget there's more tarmac and houses going up," he said. "New developments in general are being put up on land that otherwise would be taking water and they are putting new drainage into old existing drainage networks that can't cope."

In the lower part of the Deben where he is, water needs to get away to the sea, he said. "Hold it up higher and let it go our end - it's just common sense," he said. "I support the environment like everybody else does but the balance between the environment and people's livelihood and properties being flooded it's imbalanced."

Farmer Guy Hayward's land at Wickham Market following Storm Babet (Image: Charlotte Bond) Because of his claim over Babet his insurance has shot up to eye-wateringly high sums.

"They have upped my renewal by another £10k a year," he said. "I am just at my wits' end and at the minute I just can't agree to their renewal terms. That's affected me quite a lot personally and financially."

Over the past three years, his farm insurance has risen from £6k to £30k a year.

"We are currently uninsured across the whole farm due to Storm Babet and a barley field fire in 2022 where we lost 30 acres of crop about to be harvested.  I have found this last year particularly distressing. It's not a good position to be in," he said.  Guy is  looking at the viability of his livery business in the future.

He is also working with around 20 or so riparian landowners along the Deben to set up a new group to try to work on some solutions.

"I'm very concerned about the possibility of a repeat of last year -  you only have to look around with what's happening in Europe and all around the world with these more extreme weather patterns," he said.

"It is difficult to listen to conservationists telling us to leave bits of fallen trees in the river for the benefit of the wildlife when obstructions like this have not helped the river flow as it should. People who didn't suffer the consequences of having their homes flooded, will not understand what we have been through over the last year.

"The River Deben, like all rivers, needs to have a two-prong approach - firstly, slowing the flow of the river at the higher end, by creating things like woody dams and ponds where water  can sit and be stored.

"The lower end nearer the sea, is where water needs to get away as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is done successfully in the Netherlands and they are two thirds below the sea level.

"They don't have flood issues at all now and have a sensible body who takes full control over the maintenance of their rivers."

Guy Hayward next to his flooded land last year (Image: Charlotte Bond)