The Courier has written up an excellent news article regarding the recent floodgate fixture and fitting issue here in Freuchie – see page 4.

Thankfully the article is now a cautionary tale as the floodgates were returned last night.

Once again we are indebted to Craig at The Courier for showing such support for flooding issues.

Back in October 2009 we posted a warning about insurance renewals – you can find the blog post here. To summarise we warned of the need to declare to your insurance company the proximity of your property to a watercourse.

A Freuchie resident contacted us recently with a concerning story about their latest insurance renewal.

We live in Green Tree Brae but were not flooded last time. As we live at the top of the Brae, it is unlikely that we would ever flood, however – last month I received a renewal letter from the current Insurer, the PO, saying that our premium was going to increase from £292 to £700+. The insurer explained this was due to premiums going up and the majority of underwriters no longer insuring homes within 200m of a watercourse. I have always declared that we live near the burn as I know that otherwise your policy becomes void. I then spent days calling 30+ Insurers – none of which would even quote me until finally AXA agreed a price for us. It struck me that a huge % of Freuchie must be within 200m of a watercourse but would not have declared it to their Insurers and therefore many residents will not actually be covered by their Insurers. All a bit scarey heh?

In a further email the resident was concerned for other residents who may unknowingly or otherwise be failing to declare the fact they are close to a watercourse thereby making their policy invalid.

It isn’t just if you get flooded when the policies become invalid – it’s any policy and any claim at all that becomes invalid if you haven’t declared in advance that you live within 200m of a watercourse,  even if you claim for an iron burn on the carpet – you wouldn’t get anything! So basically people are paying for policies for no reason!

Everyone in the main village is most certainly within 200m of a watercourse, which by definition includes drainage ditches. By failing to declare your proximity to a watercourse you will be providing your insurer with a good reason to cancel your policy, keep your premiums and fail to pay out on any claim, of any type, you may have submitted. As the concerned resident has said, “… basically people are paying for policies for no reason!”

Thank you to the resident for sharing their story with us and providing permission for us to share it with you. Other residents experiencing issues with insurance renewals can get in contact with FFAG for advice and assistance.

The Fife Herald has a news article in this week’s paper about the flood response improvements made by Fife Council and partner agencies. Freuchie is mentioned in the article with a comment or two being supplied by FFAG.

It is also available online here.

The view from the new Freuchie Mill webcam caused some amusement this evening…

Image Capture: View from the webcamera this evening

Tiny spiders had been busy over the last few hours spinning their webs all over the new web camera. Perhaps we should start to call it CCTV instead of a webcam to stop the wee creepy crawlies taking things literally!

Update:
The spiders are at it again this morning. Some research on the Internet has shown spiders abandon locations that don’t catch food. We’ll need to keep clearing the webs away until our unwelcome friends becomes hungry and make a decision to try another takeaway location .

Technorati Tags: spiders, web, webcam

Scottish Water came out this evening to repair the water mains damaged by Fife Council earlier today. The repair crew were courteous, professional and dealt with the repair in an efficient and timely manner. When it was pointed out that the chicken farm had no water, which was a threat to the survival of the 22,500 birds, the crew escalated the repair and had the water main turned off within minutes. They proceeded quickly to expose and repair the damaged section of pipe, flush the line and resume normal service for the affected consumers. 

Let’s look over the damage and repair by way of photos…

   
Photos: Scottish Water expose the damaged section of water main

 
Photos: Damaged water main

 
Photos: New section being fitted and water main being flushed out

On behalf of Freuchie Flood Action Group and the businesses and residents of Freuchie affected by this water main damage we would like to thank the Scottish Water team for their excellent service. 

John A Thomson, Chairman of FFAG, has put the team forward for a Scottish Water GEM Award for their service this evening. Hopefully their excellence will be acknowledged as they are a credit to Scottish Water.

Technorati Tags: FFAG, Fife, Fife Council, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, GEM Award, John A Thomson, Scottish Water, water main

The blog post title is a little play of words on a famous film title, but we can see proof of the last of the flood damage being repaired on Google Street View!

View Larger Map

Monoblock and floods don’t really mix well! Two driveways in Freuchie Mill are mono blocked – both needed to be torn up, the sub-base repaired and then relaid following the August 2008 flood.

That said, other driveway materials didn’t survive too well either: chuckies washed away; paving stones loosened and made unlevel; mud deposited on the surface; etc.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, Google, Google Street View, monoblock

Something a little different for once and certainly off topic!

The Fife Herald has a report this week about the beloved and respected Cameron MacKenzie who has pledged to do a 10k walk once a month for the next 10 months as a way of raising awareness of and funds for Alzheimer Scotland. He and his family are dedicating this to the memory of his wife Joyce, who lost her battle against this condition last year. The feat is all the more impressive when you learn the ex-Minister is eighty years old. 

Anyone who takes an active involvement in village life will know Cameron well through his good works and participation in the community that has over the years made Freuchie a much richer place to stay in. We now have an opportunity to support him in his endeavours.

Good luck and best wishes to Cameron.

Technorati Tags: Alzheimer Scotland, Cameron MacKenzie, Fife Herald, Freuchie

Another lingering effect of the recent flooding manifested itself yesterday afternoon. John Thomson, Freuchie Flood Action Group chairman, discovered he had no hot water or heating. Turns out the flood waters had likely got into the regulator and / or meter mechanism, which then froze up due to the cold snap.

Scotia Gas Networks replaced the meter and regulator within an hour of the fault being logged by the Scottish Gas engineer who came along to investigate the fault. First class service by both Scottish Gas and Scotia Gas Networks.

Technorati Tags: flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Scotia Gas Networks, Scottish Gas

With a great deal of effort and more than a little luck Freuchie survived the very heavy rainfall that fell on the East of Scotland on Sunday. The small flood improvement measures we have already made since the 2008 floods, the help of many people from the community to manage flood water, the early assistance of Fife Council and the heroic efforts of Fife Fire & Rescue Service all added up to saving our village from a repeat of the devastating 2008 floods.

Freuchie Flood Action Group is aware of many areas that were being monitored and at least two location where active flood protection and prevention works were being carried out. We would have liked to have been out and about doing more observations but our time was consumed fighting back the flood waters in areas known to be at high risk.

Let’s take a whirlwind tour of these area and highlight the key points.

ALBANY CRESCENT
The run-off from the fields to the south of Albany Crescent was putting the homes in this part of the village at risk of flooding. Only the prompt action of local residents who dug appropriate drainage channels, and then travelled to Cupar to collect and deploy sandbags, ensured that properties – many of them occupied by elderly and vulnerable individuals – survived unscathed despite the 18 inch-deep water in the streets.

Patrick Laughlin, Chairman of Freuchie Community Council, was amongst those helping at this location, and was also out and about during the afternoon observing the nature and sequence of flooding throughout the village. He said afterwards that the day’s events had served to highlight that flooding was an issue which now threatened to affect almost every part of Freuchie. At Albany Crescent, the impromptu dams which were built to divert water away from the most-threatened properties were effective and necessary, but had the side effect of directing the waters down other streets previously felt to be risk-free.

Please contact us if you have photographs of the flood waters in this area of the village.

FREUCHIE DEN
No reports as yet of property flooding up Freuchie Den. Work was carried out last year to reduce the risk of flooding and it would appear to have been successful. 

 
Photos: Farm road to Freuchie Den and bridge downstream 

The information and photographs clearly show an area that still requires further flood prevention work to lessen the existing flood risk.

GREEN TREE BRAE
Alarmingly high water levels were observed further downstream on Freuchie Burn. A usually babbling brook type flow had turned into a torrent that was engulfing land adjacent to the burn banks. Flood alarms installed by residents were activated warning of a danger of flooding.

  Photos: Freuchie Burn at Green Tree Brae

The burn rose to such a height that it would have been flowing over the walkway of the old bridge, had it still be there, putting the homes at the bottom of Green Tree Brae at high risk of flooding. Thankfully the unsafe bridge was removed earlier this year and the gap in the wall bricked up as a flood prevention measure.

FREUCHIE MILL
Last and certainly not least! Freuchie Mill would likely have flooded to property damaging levels if we had seen another hour of rain.  The culvert would have been overtopped by the Millwaters Burn if the rain had not gone off when it did. At its height the burn water was starting to lap onto the top of the gabion baskets. Unfortunately we were too busy fighting the flood to take photographs at that moment!

 
Photos: Freuchie Mill culvert inlet end one hour before peak flows and the diversion pipe that was reinstated

Thankfully our request for the diversion pipe to be used, Fife Council’s work to inspect the pipe along its length and Kingdom Housing’s restoration work have proven to be a life saver on this occasion. The diversion pipe was operating at full bore and really made all the difference during this weather event.

 
Photos: Freuchie Mill culvert outlet one hour before peak flow and during the peak when flooding was starting to occur

On this occasion, the greatest flow of flood water into Freuchie Mill came down from the Chicken Farm and then cascaded down Freuchie Mill Road, joining in with the flood waters already coming down the road. The drainage, or should that be lack of drainage, requires immediate action along with the correction of the incorrect road camber that brings nearly all the run off water down into Freuchie Mill. The flooding on the road resulted in a car parked in one of the Freuchie Mill Road cottages being written off.

Photos: Flooding begins with run off from Freuchie Mill Road 

Fife Fire & Rescue Service arrived at a timely moment to help with the flood protection work. We requested they deploy a pressurised fire hose across Freuchie Mill Road as a damming measure to stem the flow of flood waters. Pumping out operations began swiftly thereafter to keep the water to a very minimal level.

 
Photos: Fife Fire & Rescue Service arrives onsite 

It quickly became apparent the fire hose wouldn’t be enough by itself thus a frantic search began to find materials to dam off the road. A source of rocks and bricks was found allowing the firemen, residents and Andy Walls of Kingdom Housing to start the construction of a two tier dam structure that took the majority of the flood waters down the side of the bridge and into the stream downstream of Freuchie Mill. A big thanks to all the residents from surrounding properties, most of whom weren’t under threat of flooding, but still came out in cold and wet condition to lend a hand – we couldn’t have done it without you. 

 
 
Photos: Dam construction on Freuchie Mill Road

Towards the end of the flood event a few of the private homes in Freuchie Mill started to see the flood waters rising. This was caused by the burn waters that come down through Freuchie Mill House and run underground around the back of the the west side private houses having no where to drain off to and therefore bursting through the back gardens. Most of these houses already had flood protection measures in place  to prevent the majority of the dirty flood water entering the underfloor void. Once again the firemen jumped into action and started to pump out the areas now being flooded. Unfortunately there was damage done by this phase of the flood: holes in gardens, subsidence of driveways and loss of property from garden sheds and bike storage units. The losses will run into hundreds of pounds to repair and replace the flood damaged items, but it could have been so much more!

Photos: Flood water starts to threaten houses in Freuchie Mill

Just as in previous flood events, Fife Fire & Rescue Service personnel were magnificent and we cannot thank them enough for their hard work, professionalism and skill in dealing with the flood waters. Only one fire appliance was required to keep the flood water level at a minimum, although it took additional personnel on the ground to win the day. The Fire Service prevented £500,000 of flood damage with the related loss of four social housing units and eight private homes for six months whilst recovery and restoration work took place.

Fife Council must also be thanked for dispatching sandbags out to us. The personnel manning the operation were working under enormous pressure and unbelievable demands.

The small flood protection measures already taken substantially improved our chances of surviving extreme weather. There are other small measures that can now be taken to make further improvements without substantial capital spend. We will be working to implement these as quickly as possible.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Climatologists and other weather professionals are predicting extreme weather events will be more frequent and intense over the coming years. Every near miss allows us to better understand the flood sequence and the flood protection improvements required to prevent future property damage and threat to life.

Please let us know if you have any photographs of flooding in Freuchie. Likewise get in touch if you know of any area of Freuchie under risk during this event that we aren’t yet aware about. The information we glean from every report and photograph improves our knowledge immensely.

Photos are courtesy of Ross Robertson, Ian Porter and John Thomson.

Technorati Tags: Albany Crescent, climatologists, East of Scotland, Fife, Fife Council, Fife Fire & Rescue Service, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Den, Freuchie Mill, Green Tree Brae, Scotland

Interesting news article from the BBC, which has some alarming facts on climate change and how it is impacting on natural disasters, including our area of interest: flooding.

Technorati Tags: BBC, climate change, flooding, natural disasters