Somerset Levels Flooding
- Created by: 16ej01
- Created on: 08-10-19 17:23
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- Somerset Levels Flooding
- Impacts
- Social
- 600 homes affected
- Villages cut off e.g. Muchelney
- Roads inaccessable
- Economic
- Cost to Somerset £82m and £147m
- Livestock moved or sold
- Buisnesses lost trade
- Evironmental
- 7000 hectares underwater for nearly a month
- Natural England said there was little impact on the wildlife
- Social
- Causes
- Physical
- Prolonged rain and tidal surges
- 12 major storms between mid Dec 2013 and mid Feb 2014
- Powerful jet stream drove low-pressure systems and their storms across the Atlantic
- Human
- Blocked River Parret hadn't been dredged for 20 years
- Used to happen every 4 years, costing £4m
- Farmers warned the government that it was required
- The river could have been wider and deeper
- Building on the flood plain, some places below sea level
- Blocked River Parret hadn't been dredged for 20 years
- Physical
- January 2014
- 65 million m cubed floodwater covering 65km squared
- Management
- National
- Government 20 year flood plan
- Repair flood banks
- Dredge more of the River Parret and Thames
- Raise the road to Muchelney
- Permanent pumps
- Build a total barrier
- Government 20 year flood plan
- Local
- Environment Agency
- 62 pumps working 24 hours a day
- From the Netherlands
- Removed 1.5m tonnes of water
- 62 pumps working 24 hours a day
- Emergency Support
- Royal Marines helped cut off villages
- Police increased patrols
- For the Future
- Farmers will be payed to store flood water
- Attempts to reduce run off from housing developments
- Repair nearly 50 defences
- Environment Agency
- National
- Landscape
- Previously covered in sea but drained in the 17th century for agriculture
- Channels built to drain the marshes
- Romans built tidal flood defences
- Vulnerable to both tidal flooding and storms
- Impacts
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