THE EAST COAST FLOODS

John Honor, a retired engineer commenced our July meeting by displaying a map showing which parts of eastern England would have been flooded had there been no sea defences at all.
He stated that the sea ‘was everything’ in as much as it can bring prosperity by creating marsh land which can be reclaimed as useful land & destructive when it causes erosion & destroys the coast line.
Ten thousand years ago we were joined to Europe & the four Fenland Rivers were tributaries of the Rhine.
Five thousand years ago we became separated by the sea, from the rest of Europe
The Romans made the first sea defences & changes to the landscape.
Although global warming is of present day concern with the sea levels rising, we were told that there have been dramatic climate changes over thousands of years & John stated that although there is not the immediate predicted catastrophe that is alarming many people, he does agree that great thought & action needs to be put into the building of adequate sea defences now & in the future & by people who understand the sea & rivers.
The east coast floods were caused by a great storm with low air pressure and started over Scotland which then travelled south along the coastline. The low pressure let the sea rise & with force 12 winds led to the east coast floods.
John showed illustrations of sea movements over the decades & pictures of great devastation, whole villages were submerged & there was a great loss of life.
The appreciative audience had many questions to ask especially about building on known flood plains, the answer being that if this is the case it must be acknowledged & the buildings must be made higher than a predicted rise of water level, which is where the specialists come in such as hydrologists whom John stated are few & far between!
[Barbara Holmes]