On the evening of Monday 20th September Topsham was treated to the sight of flood wardens on the street and many properties with their flood boards and other defences in place. But, as you can see from the photos, it was a perfect late summers evening!
The reason for all the activity was Exercise Flood Board III - the third exercise, promoted and run by Topsham’s Emergency Group. Periodically, and to ensure preparedness for a real emergency, we request that residents put up their flood defences ‘in slow time’. This allows people to practice what they might have to do for real in the middle of the night or in a ranging storm!
We were happy to be supported through the exercise by the Environment Agency and flood defence experts GRK, who were able to assist with any technical issues in erecting the flood defences.
The feedback we received both from residents and flood wards was very positive. People valued the opportunity to participate and use as a learning exercise.
The Flood Wardens were able to monitor the number of flood boards in place and give us a good gauge as to how well we are protected. Roughly, two thirds of the riverfront properties have flood defences - and about half of these were deployed on the evening of 20 September. Of the remaining one third - around 40 or so properties - many were what we term ’step up’ properties - ie you step up into the property rather than down, were located in relatively high areas - such as Halyards - or were garages, thus less important to protect that living accommodation.
Overall, we hope that Topsham is better prepared for the storms and high tides that are likely to be thrown at us, both this Autumn / Winter and beyond.
On the tab 'Gallery' are some photos taken during the Exercise.
