00:00 The river steeping at Wainfleet was high after just a few hours of rain when Flood Mary and
00:07 her floodmobile rolled into town for a resilience forum. The event at Baton's Visitor Centre
00:14 was organised by MP Matt Warman and Councillor Wendy Bowcott. However, residents seemed more
00:22 interested in what is being done to prevent flooding than what can be done to keep water
00:27 out of their homes. Can you explain what today is all about? So obviously Wainfleet is an
00:34 area that is at significant risk of flooding and we've spent a significant amount of money
00:40 upgrading Wainfleet's flood defences and that's why during Storm the Bett recently we saw
00:45 a very tiny number of houses that had any kind of flooding compared to previous events.
00:51 But it's absolutely right that we give people the chance to ask the Environment Agency,
00:56 the IDBs, all of the different people who are involved questions about why they take
01:00 the approach that they do and we show people what building and upgrading properties looks
01:06 like so that they're as resilient to flooding as possible. What is the government doing
01:12 to help people in this area? Well the government in the wake of various different flood events
01:17 has offered grants to people to put things back as they were or even to build back better
01:23 and also there is of course that much longer term programme upgrading flood defences around
01:29 the country. Now some of that for instance as I just said has benefited Wainfleet previously,
01:33 we've spent hundreds of millions of pounds on the flood barrier in Boston and there's
01:37 of course the continuing programmes around the Skate Ness and the coast. But in the longer
01:42 term we do also need to think about what does spending even greater money in the face of
01:49 climate change need to look like and that will be a conversation for the next few years
01:54 but we see the interest in an event like this today just how much people care about that
01:58 stuff and quite a lot too. Now you've been flooded twice, do you think events like this
02:05 are useful? Oh yeah definitely, yes. Are you worried that flooding might happen again?
02:13 Oh yeah we had a flood alert last night and we went round this morning to have a look
02:20 and the river is so high again at the moment. Yesterday it was the lowest it's been in a
02:25 long time and within what five, six hours it's really high again. Do you think enough
02:32 is being done to stop the flooding? No, no there's a lot more that can be done. And
02:38 what would you say that would be? Clean the rivers out like they used to do. We're fed
02:43 up with saying the same things Chrissie, they need to clean the rivers out like they
02:47 used to do many, many years ago. There's so much rubbish that's floating down the river
02:52 today. We've had a near miss last year with Storm Bebec which was very close to another
03:01 flood and really this meeting here today at the Baton Visitor Centre is to do with that
03:09 as well. Now even today after a day of rain the dikes are looking pretty full. Is Wainfleet
03:17 still worried that they could flood? Yeah Wainfleet, the residents are always worried
03:23 and this is the issue. It's the stress and the mental strain on the community that really
03:32 worries me about it more than actually the damage it causes. Now I've been told that
03:39 after Storm Bebec there wasn't much flooding and so the work that had been done, it had
03:48 shown that it was being effective. Do you think that enough is being done? No, there's
03:55 not enough being done. 2018 was a breach in the bank. The water never got as high as what
04:02 it did in Storm Bebec because the banks failed before it got there. But that was an issue
04:07 with the bank structure itself. That has been dealt with by the Environment Agency. But
04:15 the actual flow of the river, the water's coming in faster than it can get out basically
04:23 and that's really to do with things like building up in the Spillsbury area and locally
04:32 where the water's going to run off faster and probably to do with minimum tillage where
04:38 the water can't soak through to the substrate quick enough. But one of them's got to be
04:47 dealt with. Either they've got to stop it getting in or they've got to get another outlet
04:51 out to sea. And more dredging? Dredging will help and I believe that if the river was maintained
04:59 properly back to its original depths, widths and the doors put back because they've put
05:07 extended stops on the tidal doors, if they were shortened I believe it would cope with
05:14 today like an ordinary rain. But at the moment it's getting very near to being another flood.
05:21 Every time it rains, it never used to do that. People are worried, should they be? So we
05:29 have had a significant amount of rainfall, particularly in the Wainfleet area over the
05:33 last 24 hours. And this comes on the back of a really wet winter so far. So we've had
05:39 Storm Babette in October and Storm Henk at the new year. So we've got rainfall on already
05:45 saturated catchments right across Lincolnshire and that's causing the rivers to be quite
05:51 high levels at the moment. So currently in Wainfleet itself on the sleeping we've got
05:56 a flood alert which means people should be prepared. Further to that, if we need to,
06:03 we'd issue a flood warning. But we've got staff at the moment monitoring the levels
06:07 throughout the various systems throughout Lincolnshire should that become necessary.
06:12 Now I noticed on your stand, you know, the message, I mean it is a resilience afternoon,
06:17 the message is how to survive flooding. I mean is this a fact of life now? So we've
06:24 seen throughout the last few years that these events are becoming more common. So we would
06:31 urge people, as you say, this is about resilience, this event. So particularly as you mentioned
06:37 there, looking at our flood warning system, so with our flood alerts to prepare for flooding,
06:41 you get a flood warning, you should act on that. And if there's a severe flood warning,
06:46 that's about listening to the emergency services and acting.
06:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments