Flood Patrol

As Ian said, we deployed a patrol Monday evening to monitor the risk of flooding in the local area. Given the snow and rain over the last few weeks the ground is saturated so the prolonged and heavy rain experienced ran straight into the streams.

The river at Avenue Garage was particularly high - about 2 inches from overtopping the bridge. This river runs through the pitch and putt course and then drains through underground tunnels to flow out at the ‘Banjo Jetty’ at the bottom of Victoria Avenue. The problem last night was a combination of the huge volume of water flowing in the river and the high spring tide due at 9:00 which caused the water in the tunnel to back up!

Apologies for the photo but it was tipping it down.

If the bridge overtopped then there would have been flooding.

Environment Agency Flood Map for Swanage can be found here (Click):-

We then moved onto Corfe Castle via the back roads, to meet up with the police who had shut the road by the railway viaduct. Apparently a load of their cones and signs had ‘gone for a swim’ and are probably now bobbing around Brownsea Island. Again the bridges here were close to capacity; the river was running at about 2-3 cubic metres a second which is a lot of water! Here’s Austen doing some inspecting – being VERY careful not to fall in!

Then back to Swanage Police Station for a cuppa - thanks Penguin or is it Puffin?