Written by Just a little reminder that the Flood Barrier Awareness Day event is being held in Cupar today.
More information here.
Technorati Tags: Cupar, flood, flood barrier
Monthly archives for September, 2009
Bridge Inspected
Civil engineering contractors Mouchel performed routine inspection on the Freuchie Mill Road bridge this morning. This is performed every two years on behalf of Fife Council. The bridge looks to be in fairly good condition, but then again the engineers who built this bridge knew how to build structures to last many lifetimes!
Technorati Tags: Fife Council, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, Mouchel
Prince Charles Visits Moray
The Herald and other news sources are reporting the visit of Prince Charles to meet the flood hit communities of Moray in the north of Scotland. He spent two hours meeting families put out of their homes due to the recent flooding. It is welcome to see Prince Charles taking such an interest in flooding which is on the increase due to climate change, another area of interest for the Prince.
If only we’d thought of him when Freuchie got flooded! It would have saved us the wasted effort trying to get a Minister for the Environment to visit us.
Technorati Tags: climate change, flooding, Freuchie, Minister of the Environment, Moray, Prince Charles, The Herald
How not to do…
… Natural Flood Management (NFM).
We’ve previously blogged about the new flood management technique “Natural Flood Management”. Basically, it involves working with rivers to reduce flood risk to people and their property. You restore the features and characteristics of a burn that slow the water down but have been lost through farming etc with time. This involves, working with the farmers and foresters, allowing the burn to store water on its flood plain, letting trees grow along the bank to manage erosion and to provide leaky barriers to water movement, putting the bends back into straightened burns and blocking off drains to let bogs re-form. These measures can reduce the flood risk to those downstream.’
The new and world leading Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act has been written with a view to these technique being considered as part of any flood prevention / protection measure.
Now imagine our surprise when we see what can only be described as anti-NFM in action. This is best illustrated by some before photograph from last year and an after photograph taken earlier today.
Photos: Before… Mill Burn at Muirhead taken late 2008
Photo: After… Mill Burn at Muirhead taken September 2009
The burn now looks to be straighter, wider and deeper. This change will lead to an increased flow and an increase in water velocity thereby increasing the flood risk downstream. Freuchie Flood Action Group is very concerned about this work and will pursue this issue further with the appropriate authorities.
On Friday we discovered Network Rail employees draining off the natural flood plain back into the burn, which again significantly increases the flood risk downstream. We will also be pursuing this matter further.
Photos: Network Rail draining the flood plain
Technorati Tags: flood, flooding, Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Natural Flood Management, Network Rail
Flooding to Get Worse
The Glasgow Herald ran an article yesterday where it warns of increased flooding for Scotland. Various experts comment in the article on the cooler and wetter summers of recent years and the likelihood of this now being the norm. It is reported that August 2009 was the wettest on record for the west coast of Scotland and the third wettest for the whole country.
The residents of Freuchie can only be thankfully for the light rainfall, in comparison with elsewhere in Scotland, or we may well be looking at another £1m of flood damage, immeasurable mental strain and other health problems, unimaginable stress and the breakdown of personal relationships.
Technorati Tags: flood, flooding, Freuchie, Scotland, The Glasgow Herald
Flood Barrier Awareness Days
The Scottish Flood Forum is aware there is a good deal of concern regarding protecting properties from flooding.
Paul Hendy of SFF commented,
My continued stance is each home owner has responsibility to protect their property and this is not necessarily the responsibility of the respective Council. In order to promote flood protection products and to let residents see them for themselves I have arranged a number of Flood Barrier Awareness Days to be held in various communities across Scotland.
Details of the Cupar event organised by Paul are below. The Scottish Flood Forum website also has details of other dates in Broxburn and Milnathort if you find you cannot make this one.
Date
Wed 30th Sept 2009
Time
3 – 7pm
Venue
The Cafe – County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, KY15 4TB
Event Description
The display and demonstration will be done by Rob Turner – who is an independent specialist in flood products. He does not work for any FD company but offers independent impartial advice on what is most suitable and affordable in respective properties.
Following the demonstration he will then arrange a no obligation and free of charge site survey / visit to any one who would like him to look at their properties.
The estimate will then be sent, but no follow up calls, or visits will be done. – Rob has many years in the building trade, and has extensive knowledge and understanding of the problems associated with protecting property.
It is anticipated once we know how many products are required the keenest prices will be negotiated to ensure that savings will be passed on to clients.
Technorati Tags: Broxburn, Cupar, flood, flood barriers, flood protection, flooding, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Milnathort, Paul Hendy, Rob Turner, Scottish Flood Forum
Flooding in Scotland
It is sad to see the rainfall of the last few days has brought flooding to Scotland again. The BBC website has a round-up article worth viewing.
Meanwhile here in Freuchie residents were concerned at the height of the two burns that caused such devastating damage in August 2008. Luckily we avoided the heavy downpours that lead to surges in watercourses thereafter causing fluvial flooding. There has been consistent light rain interspersed with occasional heavier downpours, but we’ve not had anywhere near the intense heavy rainfall experienced in 2008.
Photo: Freuchie Mill culvert at 10am on 4th September 2009
The flood affected residents of Freuchie have certainly got fingers crossed over the next few days that we see little or only light rainfall. Heavy downpours would be most unwelcome due to the high watercourse levels and saturated ground.
Technorati Tags: flooding, fluvial, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill
