'It's just going to get worse and worse': Bridgnorth reflects on yet another River Severn flood
The flood barriers might have been holding back some of the Severn in Shrewsbury and Ironbridge, but down the river in Bridgnorth there are no such defences.
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With the river's height recorded in Bridgnorth at 4.9m on Friday morning, this week's floods were just 36cm shy of the record levels recorded in the 'big flood' in November 2000.
The main road between Bridgnorth and Telford, the A442, had been shut to traffic since Thursday after the river flooded the adjacent Severn Park.
Nick Bevon, 41, owner of the Bassa Villa, a pub on the banks of the Severn, said the issues for his business were of a drier nature.
He also lives on the currently-closed River Side, where water has been lapping at the front doors of several properties. Nick's home, fortunately, currently escapes the flooding.
He said: "Luckily the pub hasn't been overly affected by the flooding this time round, but it's the traffic problems that it causes. We get a lot of cars trying to come around and ignoring the road closures.
"In the past we've had our walls taken out, it's an absolute nightmare."
The Grade II listed character inn only begins to flood at 5m, when water begins to pour in through the basement walls. This time, they fortunately came off dry when the river peaked on Thursday morning at 4.9m.
The last time water came through the walls was in February 2020.
"It'll come again, it's only a matter of time," Nick said. "Until someone actually pulls their finger out and actually goes 'we've got a big problem here', it's just going to get worse and worse.
"We've been building for so long on flood planes, one day the defences won't work any more and it's going to get more and more homes and eventually it'll get me."
One resident, who didn't want to be named, said the increase in the frequency of flooding meant it's only a matter of time before he thinks about selling up.
His home, overlooking the river, also floods when the river hits 5m.
He said: "It used to be once a year, but it wasn't every year. We've had this four times now in the last two or three months.
"It'll come to a point where you start to think about selling up.
"Insurance is about five times what you would pay for a home 150m from the river.
"We can only get insurance because we've been with the company for a long time. If we left them now, I don't think we'd get insurance."
