Times Online August 07, 2006
By Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter
Residents and holiday-makers in East Anglia are being told to be prepared to evacuate amid warnings the region faces the highest tides for a quarter of a century.
Officials from the Environment Agency are urging people in parts of Norfolk to be prepared to leave their homes with as little as nine hours notice.
They fear the highest tides for 25 years will be accompanied by storm surges which could overwhelm flood defences and leave large parts of East Anglia under water.
The exceptionally high spring tides will take place from September 6-13 and October 6-11 and the Environmental Agency has been conducting roadshows to advise people of the preparations that are being made.
It was exceptionally high tides combined with bad weather causing storm surges that caused the devastating flooding in 1953 that claimed more than 300 lives. Similar conditions caused extensive flooding in 1978 but no lives were lost.
A new system of warnings, called the Precautionary Evacuation Notice (Pen), was introduced in 2004 under which residents sign up to receive alerts to advising them when to evacuate, giving them time to pack essential possessions.
Nigel Woonton of the Environment Agency said: "The spring tides that we’ve got predicted for September and October for the whole of the east coast are higher than anything we’ve had for something like 25 years.
"Clearly, if we get winds from the north accompanying these tides it’s going to increase the risk of flooding."
