Grandma Found ‘Floating’ in Flooded Home Drowned amid Lack of Storm Protections

An 83-year-old woman, who drowned in her home when the banks of a nearby river burst, did not have formal flood defenses for protection.

Maureen Gilbert was found “floating in the water” inside her home in Chesterfield, England, by her son Paul Gilbert and her grandson on the morning of Oct. 21, 2023, after Storm Babet caused the banks of the River Rother to burst, the BBC and Sky News reported. 

She was one of seven people who died during the storm, while around 400 homes were evacuated and thousands of others across the UK lost power, per British newspaper The Guardian.

On Monday, Sept. 1, an inquest into her death began at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court

Neil Longden, the Environment Agency operations manager for Yorkshire, said Maureen’s home was at high risk of flooding, noting that it was at a point where multiple water sources come together and lies on low land, according to the outlet. 

When asked during the inquest why the street she lived on had no flood defenses, Longden said that the “answer really is you can build something, but someone has to pay for it,” per The Guardian.

“There is a feasible solution to the problem, but funding, and potentially the planning process, may put that at risk,” he continued. “There are thousands of people at flood risk around the country. You would have that challenge in many locations around the country.”

Around five feet of water flooded the properties in Tapton Terrace “within minutes” of the river bursting its banks, the BBC reported, citing residents.

During the inquest, Langden said that he hadn’t experienced a “significant storm” like Babet before. 

He said that a storage reservoir installed back in 2018 to reduce the peak flow in the river during heavy rainfall was the “only significant step” taken to protect the area since it experienced intense flooding in 2007.

Paul attended the inquest and was told by assistant coroner Matthew Kewley that her cause of death was drowning, per the BBC. Paul previously told the outlet that his mom had called him the day before she was found dead, warning him that “water was in the house.”

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Paul, who had attempted to secure her home with flood defenses himself, was unable to enter the property due to the volume of water after spending seven hours trying to get to her, according to Sky News. 

As emergency services were also unable to enter the home, he hoped she would’ve gone upstairs, the outlet reported. Maureen, who was found dead the day after, lived downstairs in the property because she was disabled.

“I don’t think there’s enough being done with flood defenses,”  Paul told Sky News at the time of his mom’s death. “People get forgotten down here — nobody got it as bad as we did in 2007 and now this year.”

The inquest into Maureen’s death is expected to last five days.

Chesterfield Coroner’s Court and Yorkshire’s Environment Agency did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further information on Tuesday, Sept. 2.