Brighton and Hove emergency planning officers are ready to evacuate seafront homes on Sunday if the forecast of storms and a spring tide spell disaster.
The emergency planners, from Brighton and Hove City Council, began preparing to move swiftly at the weekend after a series of severe weather warnings from the Met Office and flood alerts from the Environment Agency.
The Met Office issued an advisory notice of severe or extreme weather for Brighton and Hove and the wider South East this morning.
It said that there was a moderate risk of severe weather developing on Sunday, adding: “A prolonged spell of wet and windy weather is expected, with heavy rain falling on already saturated ground. The rain may also turn to snow at times over hills.”
The Environment Agency said: “The Environment Agency and Met Office are warning of possible flooding to parts of Southern England this weekend and early next week due to a week of sustained rainfall, culminating in persistent and potentially heavy rain on Sunday.
“Heavy rainfall on already wet ground across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight could lead to potential flooding from rivers.
“Strong winds will accompany the heavy rainfall this weekend and, together with high tides forecast for next week, this could also increase the risk of flooding along the region’s coastline.”
The council’s emergency planners are expected to monitor the situation and should know by the high tide at about noon on Sunday whether they need to evacuate anyone.
If the noon high tide passes off without problems, they may have to review the situation with the next high tide at midnight.
A council spokesman said: “It could be a perfect storm.”
This is getting to be a real crazy situation.
If all the Major drain Junctions were modernised and fitted with adequet Pumps, the exces water could be directed to storage facilities. I predict that one day WATER will be more valuable than OIL.
There should be NO flooding in Britain today if the Water Companies had DONE THEIR JOB!!!!
this is so true we have been having flood warnings for so long now yet nothing has been done to prevent or minimize the damage it will do