Floods Minister Rory Stewart and 240 Environment Agency staff took part in an exercise last week by constructing temporary barriers, testing pumps and manning incident rooms in a scenario based on the severe flooding of winter 2013/14, the wettest winter in 250 years.
John Curtin, Director of Incident Management, at the Environment Agency said temporary defences can be extremely effective in protecting people and properties against the devastating effects of flooding, describing the exercise as a great example of how the defences can be put into action when flooding hits.
One of the locations where more than 200m of temporary barriers were tested was Guildford which can be vulnerable from flooding from the nearby River Wey. Temporary flood barriers were also tested in Romsey, Canterbury and Rye as part of Exercise ‘Obex’. The barriers can be used as an interim solution in communities at risk of flooding.
Floods Minister Rory Stewart said:
“Today’s exercise is an excellent example of how the Environment Agency is taking action to better protect homes from flooding in Guildford and across the country.”
“With the EA’s innovation in technology through improved flood mapping and forecasting, robust temporary defences, pumps and highly effective staff – our response to flooding should be stronger than ever.”
He also said that the Government can go further, and said it was investing in flood protection at record levels, with an unprecedented six-year commitment of £2.3 billion for new and improved defences to better protect an additional 300,000 homes.
Thanks to improved flood mapping and forecasting techniques, temporary defences were successfully used during the winter 13/14 floods to protect many communities across the country alongside traditional flood risk schemes which protected more than 1.4 million properties.
The Environment Agency is now exploring the use of temporary defences in 65 locations around the country where long-term solutions to flooding are still being investigated.
Earlier this month the Agency went out to tender with two separate contracts for flood defence barriers with a potential combined total value of £8 million.
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