According to CNN it was the Royal Navy that pulled off the save of the power station. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
What about our guys? We had Ops teams there too - providing the portable flood defences.
And the Fire Service - best not forget them either - the high-capacity pumps were vital.
Bottom line: Men and women from many different agencies and services acted together. This, more than anything is something we should be proud of imho.
In fact one of the impressive things we are seeing is people supporting each other in their communities during these difficult times. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to flooding.
Note that the 2" figure is a bit of a misnomer - it was actually more like 6" of defence above the peak water level.
I suppose I learned something about this. I never realized that a large part of Great Britain was so vulnerable to flooding. I just figured that aside from the shores that much of the country was comfortably above sea level.
In fact around 5 million people (9% of the population), in 2 million properties, live in flood risk areas in England and Wales. The Environment Agency has an important role in warning people about the risk of flooding, and in reducing the likelihood of flooding from rivers and the sea.
One of the ways we manage flood risk is by the 24,000 miles of flood defences.
The rainfall events in June and July 2007 were so extreme (perhaps as extremely as 1 in 600 year events in places) that our surface water drainage systems, river catchments, flood defences and some critical infrastructure was completely overwhelmed in some cases.
It should be noted that less than 1% of properties were flooded as a result of defence failures (breaches). The use of the term "river burst its banks" is being used instead of the more accurate "river overtopped its banks".
I work in Development Control, the 'pre-emptive arm of flood risk management'. My team help prevent inappropriate development [in the floodplains] of two main river catchments in the Anglian Region. Our region suffered more in the June 2007 flooding rather than this current July 2007 flood incident.
The Anglian Region covers more than 27,000 square kilometres with large areas of flat, low lying land, a quarter of which is below sea level.
Land use is mainly agricultural with 58% of the most productive agricultural land in England and Wales found here.
So I hope you see that flood risk is an important risk to England and Wales - not only to our population but also to our agriculture and industry.
If anybody has any questions about these flood events - I may be able to help find answers.
Al
