20/06/2005 - North Yorkshire
residents are urged to help the Environment
Agency protect their properties against
river flooding by providing them with eye-witness
accounts.
Staff are appealing to people for information
and photographs of the flooding on Sunday
which they will use to review their river
gauging stations and to improve their understanding
of localised issues.
They have a prepared a questionnaire for
residents to fill in which asks for information
on estimated flood levels from rivers and
becks, locations and whether any property
or people were affected.
Area flood defence manager Peter Holmes
said: "It is essential that we get
as much information as possible about flooding
so we can improve our response to similar
problems in the future, and the best people
to give us eye-witness accounts are residents
themselves.
"Climate change means that we are
going to see more extreme flooding and everyone
needs to be prepared. Gathering the most
up-to-date information is one of the best
ways of anticipating future flooding."
A month’s rain fell on the North York Moors
in under three hours on Sunday. This travelled
down the valley into the villages at the
bottom.
A total of 70 millimetres of rainfall were
recorded at Hawnby, north of Helmsley between
4.15pm and 7pm on Sunday. A total of 60
mm fell in an hour. Around 70mm of rain
falls on average in June.
People are urged contact the Environment
Agency on 01904 822537 for a copy of the
questionnaire and a pre-paid envelope. All
photographs received will be returned.
Environment Agency staff hope to talk to
residents at public surgeries which will
be held in flood-affected areas next week.
Details will be confirmed later.
