Thanet District Council was on full alert on Thursday 5 December and Friday 6 December due to the risk of flooding in the district posed by abnormally high tides.
Flood warnings were in place although widespread flooding had not been predicted for Thanet. Thanet District Council staff liaised closely with Kent County Council and the Environmental Agency to ensure precautions were made and all areas were secured and protected.
Flood warnings were in place although widespread flooding had not been predicted for Thanet. Thanet District Council staff liaised closely with Kent County Council and the Environmental Agency to ensure precautions were made and all areas were secured and protected.
The council worked tirelessly in the hours before the event to close floodgates and issue sandbags to areas at risk of flooding. Engineering staff worked overnight on the 4th and 5th December, monitoring the event and the district’s defences. Following the second and last abnormally high tide on Friday afternoon the clean-up began with staff working through the weekend and into this week to clear up debris and sand washed up onto promenades, pavements and roads.
Viking Bay and West Bay were the worst hit, with a number of beach huts damaged. If your beach hut was affected please call Your Leisure on 01843 296111.
Neither Margate nor Pegwell Bay were affected but both could have been the subject of significant flooding had it not been for the investment in flood defences made in the last three years. The Old Town area of Margate was particularly susceptible to the type of high water event experienced last week. However thanks to the brilliant engineering of the new tidal flood defences completed in May this year, there was no flooding in Margate or at Pegwell Bay. This work was undertaken by Thanet District Council and funded by the Environment Agency. The project at Margate successfully improved the defences from 1 in 20 to a 1 in 200 year standard.
Ramsgate’s Port and Harbour sustained minor damage, thanks to the work carried out by Harbour Master Robert Brown and his staff.
Cllr Alan Poole, Cabinet member for Operational Services said: “All officers involved in making sure all areas were secure worked very quickly in deploying sandbags and closing temporary flood defences.
“I’m pleased that the excellent flood defences in Margate worked well and prevented the Old Town from flooding. Without them water would have surely hit the town, creating thousands of pounds worth of damage.”
Follow this link if you would like to read more on what to do if you are affected by floods as well as recovering and cleaning up after a flood occurs:http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1317140405287
shame nobody swept up in Ramsgate then
ReplyDelete