The Ock Mill Flood Barrier, installed on Christmas Eve, is now saturated on both sides. I was told by one local resident that when the water gets through the barrier it has nowhere to run away.
The Marina Park has been an island for quite a few days now but is getting increasingly further from the mainland.
The Ock Valley Walk has been cordoned off – as has The Margaret Brown Gardens.
The houses on the Ladygrove Estate were flooded in 2007 but that was an extraordinary summer event when the water rose very suddenly. The current Environment Agency Map shows risks of flooding. A few houses appear to be high (greater than 1 in 30 years), and some are medium (between 1 in 30 and 1 in 100 years) and more are low (between 1 in hundred and 1 in a thousand years).
The River Thames has such a wide floodplain that it has not caused much Abingdon flooding, in recent times, but there is still a lot more water to come down, and more rain is forecast. So I would expect there are people watching the water level again.
Years ago, (25ish) they used to dredge the small rivers/streams/ditches and pile the “dredgings” along the bank. This made the waterways deeper and the banks higher, which I assume reduced flooding and improved drainage.
This was apparently stopped to preserve wildlife (probably to save money).
Since then flooding has been a regular event and I haven’t seen an otter or a water vole.
Isn’t dredging actually a good idea?
Dredging sends the problem further downstream. We should stay away from flood plains as our ancestors did!
Accept that, and I’m not a hydrologist, but if everyone dredged wouldn’t the water rapidly make its way to the sea where it would be a “drop in the ocean” ?
The danger is the water would rapidly make its way to the sea and create tidal waves along the French coastline.
Let’s do it.
The Thames Barrier would be up so all that water wouldn’t get out to sea.