News
Sandbags handed out as torrential rain brings flash flooding
Telegraph, April 2012
Residents in flood risk areas have been offered free sandbags to help protect their properties from rising water levels despite much of the country being declared in drought.
Motorists across swaths of Britain were also warned of travel chaos and were urged to drive carefully as heavy rain threatens road networks. Forecasters predicted “heavy showers” across much of England and Wales on Thursday, with the wet weather set to continue for the next week.
The Environment Agency warned householders in many areas that their homes were at risk from flooding due to the recent heavy rain.
Officials offered them free sandbags to build barriers around their properties, advised them to move their possessions away from the ground floor and offered them temporary flood barriers .
More than 40 flood alerts were in place across the rest of the country, just a week after Britain was slowly turning into a dust bowl after months of drought conditions and a hosepipe ban affecting millions of people. The spate of torrential rain has put Britain on course for the wettest April on record.
The warnings were issued for southern England, the North East and the Midlands after rivers were judged likely to break their banks following a week of heavy rain. The agency said five flood warnings remained in place in south-west England where some areas saw up to two inches (50mm) of rain on Wednesday.
Roz Codling, 23, who lives in Ottery St Mary said she had been offered sandbags after the River Otter came within 100 yards of her house.
“The Environment Agency has said they can supply us with sandbags and the blue floodgates but we have to pay for the floodgates, and we have to go and pick up the sandbags,” the mother of one said.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed because we live at the bottom of a valley.”
Lynn Thurgate, owner of the Tumbling Weir Hotel in Ottery St Mary, said: “We had advice from the Environment Agency to move things to upper levels. We have had an awful lot of rain – it has rained solidly.”
The Environment Agency sent through a series of automated telephone warnings about the flooding on Wednesday morning to people in the area.
The risk of flooding is made worse because parts of England are in the midst of one of the worst droughts since records began. The hard ground means that water is likely to rush off instead of sinking in.
Fluvial Innovations comment:
Sandbagging still seems to be the last port of call for immediate flood protection. However there is extremely strong evidence that using sandbags to assemble flood defences to protect property is completely ineffective.
Problems with sandbags:
- Time consuming and labour intensive to assemble into flood defences
- Prone to leakage
- Can only be used once, not reusable
- Viral and bacterial infections often present in flood water get transposed onto the porous hessian sacks.
“The FLOODSTOP Modular Flood Barrier is cheaper and far more effective than sandbags. The barrier can be rapidly deployed by one person.”
Floodstop demonstrated on the US Weather Channel
Last weekend, the award-winning flood prevention barrier, Floodstop, was demonstrated to the US Weather channel in America.
The following video shows, storm tracker Jim Cantore talking to Kevin Harris of the Presray Corporation. Presray are the official US distributor of the Floodstop barrier.
Fluvial Innovations panel member at UKTi’s “Export for Growth” event with Lord Green
Fluvial Innovations was highlighted as an exporting success at the South West’s “Export for Growth” event.
Minister for Trade & Investment, Lord Stephen Green, visited the South West on 16 January 2012 to speak at a regional National Challenge: Exporting for Growth event, hosted by South West Chambers of Commerce, UK Trade & Investment and sponsored by PwC and HSBC.
Lord Green said: “Government alone cannot turn round the export performance of this country.
“We need to work with those that have most to do with small companies, can help them to understand the benefits of exporting, and can then help make it a reality.”
“Our future prosperity will not come from relying on domestic markets alone. Across the world there are markets that are showing strong, long-term growth. We want to make sure that UK firms are not just trading abroad but thriving there. UKTI has a crucial role to play and will seek to double its client base to around 50,000 over the next three years.”
At the event, delegates were able to take part in a panel discussion with successful South West exporters including Reg Hankey, CEO of Pittards PLC, Simon Phelps, MD of Fluvial Innovations Ltd and Dr. Andrew Robertson of Gooch & Housego.
Fluvial Innovations award-winning flood prevention barrier, Floodstop has been successfully exported throughout the globe. Fluvial’s Floodstop barrier is a much improved method for flood protection compared to ubiquitous sandbagging techniques.
Further details of the event can be viewed here: http://www.ukti.gov.uk/uktihome/home/item/244640.html
Recent Images of 0.9m Floodstop flood protection, with a Nuclear Client
Fluvial demonstrates Floodstop to Cllr’s in Scotland
No membrane was used in the photo above – the system was simply placed straight onto the ground!
Earlier this week Fluvial Innovations carried out a large demonstration to councillors in Scotland. The demonstration proved how the award-winning Floodstop barrier is far more effective than sandbags. Sandbags are costly, slow to assemble, ineffective and non-repeatable.
Guide to Flooding e-book published by flood insurance specialists homeprotect
Flood insurance specialists homeprotect have compiled The Definitive Guide to Flooding to help you mitigate the risks of flooding and, if the worst should happen, how to live with the immediate effects of a flood.
Download a free copy of homeprotect’s flooding e-book from homeprotect.co.uk.
Sandbags issued as heavy rain hits north-east England – better flood protection needed!
The North-east of England and parts of Scotland suffered localised flooding over the weekend thanks to torrential rain.
Emergency services received hundreds of calls, with parts of County Durham and Northumberland worst-hit. Northumberland County Council and the fire service responded to dozens of requests for sandbags to the local community.
Flood alerts were still in place for the rivers Pont and Blyth. Several roads were shut for a time on Saturday and two properties struck by lightning, but there were no reports of injuries.
Several millimetres of rain fell in just a few hours, with Durham and Darlington Fire Service describing conditions as “severe”. A spokesman for Northumberland County Council said: “Heavy rainfall throughout the day caused areas of surface water flooding.
Fluvial Innovations comment:
Sandbagging still seems to be the last port of call for flood protection. However there is extremely strong evidence that demonstrates that using sandbags to assembly flood protection barriers to protect property is completely ineffective.
Problems with sandbags:
- Time consuming and labour intensive to assemble into flood defence barriers
- Prone to leakage
- Can only be used once, not reusable
- Viral and bacterial infections often present in flood water get transposed onto the porous hessian sacks.
The Pitt Review:
In the summer of 2007, Britain suffered devastating floods that cost the economy an estimated £3 billion. After the floods, Sir Michael Pitt was asked by British Ministers to conduct an independent review of the flooding that took place. The floods caused 13 deaths, affected nearly 50,000 homes and 7,000 businesses in England and involved more than 80 local authorities. His report set out glaring gaps in the UK’s readiness to cope with widespread and prolonged flooding and he made 92 subsequent recommendations to make sure communities are better protected.
Two of these recommendations made a direct reference to the use of sandbags as a flood defence measure. ES.49 – “…The Review was unable to obtain any significant evidence that sandbags were particularly effective during the 2007 summer floods in providing protection to individual households.” ES.50 – “…The general provision of sandbags should be phased out in favour of better products such as kite-marked flood boards, air bricks and other forms of temporary defence”
“The FLOODSTOP Modular Flood Barrier is cheaper and far more effective than sandbags. The barrier can be rapidly deployed by one person. It doesn’t need to be bolted to the ground and the units, are simply connected using slide-in keys. The barrier is re-useable, unlike sandbags; and it works, unlike sandbags. Local authorities are wasting a large percentage of their budgets on sandbags that are prone to excessive leakage, slow to assemble and can only be used once.”
Oxford City Council deploys Floodstop – demonstrating rapid flood protection
Oxford City Council deployed Floodstop today as part of a training exercise. The rapidly deployable flood defence system was purchased to divert flood waters away from several properties and roads located just off Botley Road.
Floodstop launched at US hurricane exhibition in Fort Lauderdale
Fluvial Innovations was pleased to support our exclusive US distributor Presray Corporation (www.presray.com & www.doordam.com) at the Governor’s Hurricane conference in Fort Lauderdale, USA last month.
Since 1955, Presray has become the USA’s leader in protective door systems. They supply many proven and successful flood defence systems.
Floodstop protects the birthplace of Scouting
Floodstop recently protected a number of properties on Brownsea Island from a significant high tide.
Angela Cott, National Trust Property Manager at Brownsea Island said:
“We are delighted that we now have an easy to deploy flood prevention system on the island. It will allow us to protect our newly refurbished reception when we have exceptionally high tides. We were completely fed up with deploying sandbags in the past. The barrier was in action today and prevented flooding of the walkway and reception. It’s fantastic.”
