Kent floods put county on alert
The lock at East Farleigh
almost disappears under the high river last month
Kent's been washed out with heavy rain in recent weeks. But are
we at risk of a Noah-style flooding, or are we all shored up for
the worst?
Mary Graham reports.
The county's been put on flood alert in recent days.
The Rivers Medway, Stour and Darent are among those areas put on
the Environment Agency's warning list.
But while some country lanes have flooded and the River
Medway has gently burst its banks we’ve not had streets lost to the
water and people having to be rescued from homes and cars, unlike
scenes from the west country.
Whether we’ll see a major alert this year could be down to luck,
according to the Environment Agency’s Neil Gunn, a flood risk
management engineer.
“2012 has been one of the wettest April to Octobers on record,”
Mr Gunn said.
“And in Kent, I have to say we have been lucky.
Flooding on the A28
between Ashford and Tenterden just before Christmas
"There is always a probability of whether certain events will
happen. And if things had gone like they had in Devon, I think we
would be in trouble.”
“We have had floods in previous years, but every year is
different, and luck does come into it, even though there is much we
can do to prevent flooding.”
The inescapable fact is that we are dependent on the
weather.
According to Lester Gosbee, a Kent weather expert, the figure
that could trigger floods is if roughly three inches of rain fall
in a day.
He said: “It’s not an exact science, but broadly if that amount
of rain was to fall now, the ground is very saturated and it would
just run straight into rivers.”
The last time a major flood happened in the west of the county
was in October 2000. The Medway burst its banks, submerging many
parts of the Weald and the Lockmeadow area of Maidstone.
Back then the area recorded its highest ever daily rainfall
figure of 57mm or 2.24 inches. And it kept up for several days.
As a guide to how high that was, in December 2012 the normal
level of daily rainfall for west Kent was around 2.3mm.
Geography plays a part. Yalding is at higher risk of flooding is
because it is low-lying and is where the Medway meets one of its
largest tributaries - the river Beult.
And there is a defence already at work.
As well as the flood defences at Sandwich (pictured left), in
1981 the Leigh Barrier was built on the outskirts of Tonbridge,
after several serious floods, especially in 1968.
It is capable of holding back 1,230 million gallons of water,
contained in a giant embankment, away from the Medway.
That said, when torrential rains arrived in 2000, river levels
began rising by 1.2 inches a minute and the barrier reached its
capacity.
If England was to have all the flood defences it needs, and
existing ones maintained, the Environment Agency calculates the
cost would be £1 billion a year. That’s compared to £570 million
spent now.
Mr Gunn said: “There is only a finite pot of money. We could
spend it all in the south-east, but then other parts of England put
forward their schemes and other areas may have a very pressing
need, or a brilliant scheme.
“So the next best thing is that each local council pays money to
Regional Flood Defence Committees and DEFRA puts money in towards
projects that may not get national funding.”
Strood is no stranger to
flooding. This picture shows the High Street during the 1921
flood
One such scheme that has had to be parked because of money, is
one to pump excess water from in and around Aylesford into a
quarry. But flood defence work in Yalding, East Peckham and
Edenbridge, in the last 10 years, have received funding.
Mr Gunn added: “We have invested significantly and do what we
can to save lives and be good value to the taxpayer.
"One thing that needs saying is that there is always someone
from the agency monitoring rivers and weather. They are the ones
feeding our flood alerts and early warning systems.”
28/12/12
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