EEC/09/278/HQ Cabinet 24 November 2009

Response to Recent Severe Weather Events

Briefing Note from Executive Director Environment, Economy and Culture

Summary

The first significant storm of this winter, bringing over 50 mm of rain and gusts of 60 mph will have cost the county council over a third of a million pounds. Over 100 staff from the county and its contractor SWH were deployed over the weekend of 13/14 November to provide a robust and effective response to the event. Further heavy showers and strong winds crossed the county on the weekend of 21/22 November bringing further disruption to a few localities.

Introduction

On Friday 13 November a well forecast “significant autumn storm” crossed the county to give over 12 hours of persistent rain from midday to midnight, coupled with strong winds during the evening and overnight through to the Saturday. The total rainfall forecast was from 20mm on low ground to isolated totals of 70mm on high ground, particularly South facing hills. The strongest winds forecast were gusts up to 80 mph on the coasts.

In preparation for this the Police called a Flooding near , multi-agency GOLD tele-conference on Thursday afternoon at 15:30 which allowed all partner organisations in the and Local Resilience Forum (LRF) to share information and immediate actions. On the Friday morning Emergency Planning called a Devon multi-agency SILVER tele-conference, with the district councils and county council directorates, again to share the latest information and ensure preparedness.

Regarding the highways, the Operations and Communications Manager activated the Severe Weather and Emergency Response Plan, which involved establishing tele-conferences between Headquarters, the Highway Operations Control Centre, the Area Offices, Customer Service Centre, SWH Roads Ltd and Corporate Communications. This enabled an effective internal command and control structure to be established to manage the event, as had proved effective in the snow event in February.

The event

By midnight on Friday 13 November the Environment Agency recorded a daily total rainfall ranging from 35mm in to nearly 40mm in North and South Devon. This led to the Environment Agency issuing 11 Flood Watches (including two coastal) across the county and four Flood Warnings, all in East Devon. On the Saturday a further 13- 26mm of rain fell across the county with a further Flood Watch and Warning being issued. Fallen oak tree, Fursdon Cross, Staverton

Wind-speeds peaked at around 18:00 on the Friday with 55mph gusts recorded on , and again at around 13:15 on Saturday afternoon (slightly later than predicted) with 60 mph gusts recorded on the Taw Bridge in , when restrictions were in place for a short period to high-sided vehicles.

Over this period nearly 300 incidents were reported to the Highways Operations Control Centre (some via the Customer Service Centre), of which 86 related to drainage and surface water flooding, 156 related to fallen trees and branches and over 40 relating to debris and landslides on the highway. The incidents were fairly evenly spread across the county, and the only property flooding reported to the HOCC was at Purzebrook, which appeared to be the result of a blocked culvert. and seafronts Highway damage, Windgate Hill, near were closed for some of this period and a number of principal roads were affected by flooding, but for a relatively short period in the evening and overnight. Many of the trees that fell were on minor road but a few fell on vehicles in both North and South Devon. In the Christmas lights came down in Fore Street, and there were reports of roof tiles falling in a number of locations.

Throughout Friday evening and on Saturday morning more than 100 staff from SWH Roads and were engaged in responding to the severe weather and extensive cover was provided by the media and in particular Radio Devon over this period.

Latest events

Over the past weekend (21/22 November) further bands of heavy rain and strong winds have been affecting the county again with a further 80 incidents reported to the HOCC of mainly highway and fluvial flooding and only a few fallen trees. The River Lew burst its banks flooding local roads to over a metre depth, and some roads in the Woodbury area were closed overnight dues to trees and flooding. The moor roads around also saw some flooding and landslips but no property flooding was reported to the HOCC. The prognosis for the coming week is for further wet and windy weather without extreme conditions.

Cost

In terms of cost £350,000 of work has been undertaken or currently identified as resulting from these events, and it is anticipated that these costs may rise further as the full damage to Devon County Council’s 8000 miles of highway is uncovered.

Chris McCarthy cc191109cba sc/winter storms 3 hq 231109