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Case Study

Topic

Environmental Pollution and Decontamination

Incident / Exercise

Incident: Lewes flooding, Thursday 12 October 2000

Background and Context

Following three days of exceptionally heavy rain on already saturated ground, the River Ouse overtopped the flood defences and flooded substantial parts of Lewes.

613 residential and 207 business properties were flooded, along with 16 public buildings.  1000 people were displaced.  503 vehicles were damaged or destroyed and the total cost of the flooding was given as £88 million.

How the Topic was Handled

A Restoration Sub-Group was appointed, working to the Lewes Flood Recovery Co-ordinating Group.  Its Terms of Reference were “To co-ordinatethe clear-up of the affected areas, including the consideration of long-term health issues.”

Represented on the sub-group were:

• Lewes District Council (Environmental Health, Housing Maintenance, Building Control, Design & Conservation)
• East Sussex County Council (Transport & Environment, Trading Standards)
• East Sussex Brighton & Hove Health Authority (Public Health Consultant).

This sub-group met five times, under the chairmanship of a senior Environmental Health Officer from Lewes DC, the last time being in May 2001. 

Key points arising were:

• Provision of public health advice, particularly on how to handle cleaning up flooded homes and avoiding contamination.
• Flooding of industrial areas released oil and other pollutants.  As water receded, oil became concentrated in one watercourse.  Environment Agency boomed (contained with bunding) some 70,000 litres of waste and heating oil and removed by tanker.
• Flood stirred up dormant soil content from previous industrialisation.
• Concern about children and pets playing in contaminated gardens.
• Regional epidemiologist commenced survey into health effects in July 2001 using sample of 120 flood-affected households and ‘control’ population of non-flooded households.  The results, published in March 2002, showed that there was a significant impact on people’s psychological health and that there were impacts upon self-reported illnesses such as earache, skin rashes and gastro-intestinal upsets. 

Lessons Identified

The Restoration sub-group particularly noted the following:

• The Health Impact Survey (see below) is a national first and could have significant impact.  Hitherto there has been little information available on health implications of flooding.
• The Recovery Group was one of the major success stories of the flooding.  Groups could have been even more productive if organisations had proffered dedicated time rather than tacking duties onto already very busy workloads.
• They regretted not having the direct involvement of the Environment Agency. 

Contacts for Further Information

Further information can be obtained from:-

Alan Smith, Head of Emergency Planning, East Sussex County Council
E-mail: alan.smith@eastsussex.gov.uk

or

Lindsay Frost, Director of Planning & Environmental Services, Lewes District Council
E-mail: lindsay.frost@lewes.gov.uk

Additional Documents

A review of the recovery [External PDF]