Flooded - A JustWriteIt TrueStory

So Why Did We Flood?

So we are getting near the end and it's time perhaps to draw some conclusions. Why did Datchet and the villages downstream flood in 2014?

A local councillor described if as an 'Act of God.' I'm not sure about the theology of that and seems a bit hard on the Almighty but there's little doubt that extreme weather conditions played their part.

Rainfall during January and February was twice the average normally experienced and the South East was by no means the area worst affected. Areas of the Somerset Levels were accessible only by tractor or boat and whole villages were abandoned and deserted. Coastal areas were hit by terrible storms. An east coast storm at the beginning of January was the worst since 1953 and the 'monsoon' season was said to be the worst since 1776. 'It's a battleground', said a Met Office spokesman, 'The UK is at the meeting point of different air masses, between the continent, the Atlantic and to the North the Pole.' All this was converging over Britain and, bearing in mind we struggle with even 'the wrong kind of leaves' on a rail track we were struggling to cope.

Many laid the blame at the door of the Environment Agency who are responsible for the maintenance of rivers in England but the agency's budget had been slashed and it was losing 25% of its staff including front line personnel. Part of their job is to protect the UK from flooding but the crisis was so deep they were largely fire fighting; or perhaps the finger in the dyke is a more appropriate analogy? Their head of incident management said. "It's been wave after wave since mid December. We have been working 24/7 for nine weeks now and I don't think this is over. There will be a sting in the tail with more storms to come." The Agency was under huge pressure but many, not least along our stretch of the Thames, felt they were guilty of mismanagement.

One of the big accusations was that they had failed to dredge the rivers but experts can't seem to agree whether this would have made a difference. There's an argument it keeps water in the channel for longer but can deliver stronger surges downstream. According to some it would be better to slow the water down than speed it along its course.

The Thames meanwhile was experiencing its highest sustained flow since 1883 described by an expert as, "In the extreme range of historical variability" and, while villages along its course had learned to deal with periodic flooding and built their homes accordingly, increased mobility meant many living in the area lacked this folk memory and many of the newer properties, ours being a prime example, were not built to withstand it.

So we can comfort ourselves to an extent that these really were unusual conditions and may not be repeated for another generation. On the other hand climate change means that intense downpours are likely to become a more common experience. We can only hope they are not on the scale of 2014.

But what of our friend the Jubilee River? What role did the flood relief scheme play in our plight. More of that in the next post as we press on to our conclusion.