Freuchie Flood Action Group

It is very sad to hear of the loss of 200 lives in southern China as the area is hit by flooding. Nearly 70,000 people have also be evacuated from their homes near the Fuhe river in Jiangxi province following the failure of a river dike.

It has certainly been a bad week for flooding through the world with many people losing their life in China, France and Spain. Thankfully the good weather in Scotland has made for favourable conditions where flooding is unlikely – long may it last!

Technorati Tags: China, flood, flooding, France, Fuhe, Jiangxi, Scotland, Spain

Residents throughout Freuchie are now on flood watch as water courses continue to rise due to the rain and snow falling on Fife.

SEPA has issued an alarming number of flood warnings throughout Scotland, including Fife and Clackmannanshire rivers.

This statement was prepared on 30 March 2010 at 4:24 pm.

A FLOOD WATCH has been issued for Fife and Clackmannanshire rivers.

Heavy rainfall and some snow is expected throughout Tuesday evening and into Wednesday for Fife and Clackmannanshire. Rivers are rising and localised flooding can be expected. Further updates will appear here as more information becomes available.

This FLOOD WATCH is now in force until further notice.

Concerned Freuchie residents have started to move their cars to areas of safety and items of value have been lifted above the flood level of August 2008. Flood defences are either primed or fully deployed in preparation for possible flooding.

Unfortunately this weather is forecast to be with us throughout tomorrow, with some forecasting services showing it to last into Thursday!

Technorati Tags: Fife, flood, flood watch, flooding, Freuchie, Scotland, SEPA

The Met Office has issued a “Flash Warning of severe or extreme weather”:

Rain will spread northwards across southern and central Scotland during this evening and right through into tomorrow morning becoming heavy at times with totals of 25 to 30mm generally but with 50mm possible over the high ground. The public are advised to take extra care and refer to the latest Scottish Environment Protection Agency Live Flood Warning Information.

This warning is in effect from 9pm tonight until 10am tomorrow morning.

SEPA has no flood warning in force for Fife so far.

Standby your sandbag and grab some sleep now!

Technorati Tags: flash warning, flood, flooding, Met Office, Scotland, SEPA

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

Amazingly the Norwegian Institute of Meteorology makes available an hour by hour forecast for Freuchie. They have predicted around 18mm of rainfall over the remainder of today and tomorrow. This level of rainfall is certainly less worrying than the deluge predicted by the Met Office, which provides a general forecast for large parts of the East of Scotland.

A link has now been added to the sidebar in the Forecasts and Warnings category of the blog.

Big thanks to Ross Robertson for this fabulous find.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Met Office, Norwegian Institute of Meteorology, Ross Robertson, Scotland

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

Nearly missed this one…

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill received Royal Accent on the 16th June 2009. The world leading Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 brings flood legislation into the 21st century for the people of Scotland.

Technorati Tags: flood, Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill, Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009, Scotland, Scottish

The Environment Agency in England has urged a doubling of funding for flood management funding after a report reveals that 1 in 6 homes are at risk from flooding, with more and more homes adding to this statistic as global warming becomes more and more significant.

Full story on the BBC website.

Flooding might not be such a big problem in Scotland, but it does show that a increase in funding and resources targeted at dealing with flooding must also happen throughout Scotland.

An interesting flood fact is £1 spent on flood management saves £7 in clean-up costs. Seems a bit of a no brainer in sheer financial terms even before we start to consider the people issues and the impact on business.

Technorati Tags: England, Environment Agency, flood, flooding, Scotland