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Families flee flood in Britain
09/11/2007 11:29 - (SA)
London - Police urged thousands of British
families to leave their homes on Friday as the Norfolk and Kent
coasts braced for severe flooding from a tidal surge in the
North Sea.
Police went door to door to urge residents of 7 500 homes in
Norfolk, on the east coast of England, to leave, or if they have
nowhere to go, to move onto upper floors and lock their doors.
Hundreds of families moved into school buildings where local
authorities said they had room for 3 500 people. Highways and railways to the town of Great Yarmouth were closed. More than
200 elderly residents were evacuated from care homes.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a pre-dawn meeting of
Cobra, the government's top emergency committee, hours before
the tidal flood was expected to strike.
"Officers knocking on doors are giving (people) advice to
leave their homes and move in with friends and family outside
the affected area," a Norfolk police spokesperson said. "We are
urging the public not to panic."
Weather experts invoked images of the major floods of 1953
that hit eastern England and the Netherlands, and said the Dutch
and German coasts were again also at high risk from the storm
surge coupled with spring tides and low pressure.
"A tidal surge of up to three metres is making its way down
the North Sea which could coincide with high tides," Environment
Secretary Hilary Benn told the House of Commons on Thursday.
In Great Yarmouth, a small number of surfers in wet suits
were out trying to catch a wave as sun rose above the beach.
The Environment Agency issued eight severe flood warnings
around Great Yarmouth in East Anglia for the surge, expected to
peak between 07:00 and 08:00 on Friday.
"We are gravely concerned about the scope for serious
flooding," an Environment Agency spokesperson told BBC Radio.
Less severe flood warnings were also in place in Yorkshire
and Kent.
Benn said police were on standby in areas likely to be
affected to co-ordinate the response to any flooding, including
evacuation if needed.
"There is a risk of flood defences being overtopped on the
coast and in tidal rivers especially in East Anglia,
particularly the Norfolk Broads, the coast south of Great
Yarmouth, including Lowestoft, and areas south of this as far as
the coast of Kent," he said.
The Met Office said north-westerly winds
were coinciding with low pressure and high tides to produce the
exceptional conditions.
"The height of the surge we are expecting on Friday morning
happens around once every 20 years or so," said Stewart Wortley,
Head of Storm Tide Forecasting at the Met Office.
East Anglia last suffered coastal flooding in 1993 and 1978.
A severe North Sea flood in 1953 killed around 300 on the
English east coast and more than 1 800 in the Netherlands.
- Reuters
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