The Environment Agency is carrying out a second phase of testing for the tidal flood readiness of its facilities in North Norfolk later this month.
Norfolk Operations will be testing the deployment of a new generator for use in Wells-next-the-Sea and Cley-next-the-Sea on October 25th; it follows a first phase of testing for flood gates and tidal barriers in each town on September 26th.
Sophie Fallon, team leader for Norfolk Operations, said the training exercise will test the resilience of the new equipment to deal with a large influx of tidal waters as would be the case in an actual flood scenario.
The mains electricity was first tested to bring the flood prevention structures across key roads in Wells-next-the-Sea and Cley-next-the-Sea last month and now it is the turn of mobile generator equipment to be tested to ensure it can do the same job in case the mains supply is unavailable.
She added a third option for the rolling out of flood defences in the area is via hand winch, with this scenario also tested as part of last month’s activities.
“Local people have been extremely interested in the work and although we did this very early in the morning local dog walkers told us how pleased they were that we were testing our systems for the benefit of the local community,” Ms Fallon commented.
“This training exercise provides reassurance for the local community that our plan is robust and we are resilient in times of tidal flooding.”
Individuals seeking insurance for flood risk areas should contact the team at GSI Insurance Services (Southern) Limited, as our staff can provide expert guidance on what policies would best suit their circumstances.
Flooding can be a serious issue for homeowners to deal with – not least due to the potential damage to the structure of a property when it becomes submerged in flood waters – so having comprehensive flood insurance in place can give great peace of mind to property owners while their local authorities continue to improve their flood readiness.