Floods in France

Last weekend Britain was lashed by gales and massive sea swells but once again the Marsh was ‘lucky’ ( if you can call it that)  and escaped the worst  . The combination of spring tides coupled with high winds  and the consequent flooding could have potentially been disasterous for us all . It could have caused  damage similar to that experienced in France on the Atlantic coast between La Rochelle and  L’Aguillon sur Mer. Given that we too  live in a low-lying and predominantly below sea level area,  which is  shaped like a saucer, one break-through  in our sea defences would have been sufficient to cause the human drama and terrible toll as has been experienced abroad.

Collapse of sea wall and road!

As anger mounted in France over the failure of sea walls to protect coastal communities, French  President Sarkozy  pledged 3 Million Euros (2.7 m)  to aid France’s storm-hit region (who have a statutory right of protection in stark contrast to us) and declared it a national catastrophy. Let us hope that our own sea defence improvements on the Marsh will be completed soon . Otherwise we could find ourselves  in a  similar position to that of the  poor people in France and elsewhere!