Ironbridge felt the force of the River Severn on Thursday as flood barriers withstood water levels even higher than predicted.
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00:00 Hang on then Meg. Right I'm going. So just tell me who you are and why you're here.
00:05 Nick Green, Area Incident Manager. Obviously we've got our flood defences up in Ironbridge and along the River Severn.
00:12 So just going along the length making sure that they're doing what they should be doing for the communities.
00:16 Protecting them. You guys have been here over a week now. The flood barriers went up to 27th I think?
00:22 Yeah. What's that meant? How long were you preparing for that? What have you been doing for the last seven days?
00:28 What's involved? Yeah so we get a lot of advice from the Met Office and that advice was that Christmas was going to be a very wet period.
00:36 So as a result of that we've got lots of assets along the River Severn, along the River Wye that we need to put up and maintain.
00:46 And to make sure that they're fit for purpose. And over Christmas obviously we want our staff to be able to have some form of a Christmas.
00:56 So we made sure we put these barriers up well in advance so that they were ready for when it was needed.
01:02 And that meant that they were up early but they're there and ready to protect the community. So that assurance piece for the community as well.
01:11 So it's been a little drier the last couple of days. Well today. Yes. I'm looking forward to being a little bit drier.
01:18 Is tonight's peak likely to be the peak of peaks? Yes. Obviously we've got to strongly caveat that with any future rain.
01:28 Like yesterday some rain did fall on the Welsh mountains but we're not expecting that to cause any additional peak up at Shrewsbury.
01:39 But all that happens now, any rain that does fall everywhere, it's just so saturated. The river's going to stay elevated for a longer period of time.
01:48 But fingers crossed we do have that peak that's passing from Shrewsbury down to here this evening.
01:56 And once that passes the river should start to receive in full.
02:00 How much likely, how much higher is the river likely to get this evening?
02:06 Here? Not not a great deal. What you see here, we're probably talking a few centimetres.
02:12 We're not talking about a massive peak that's coming down like a wall of water.
02:17 There's been so much rain over the last few weeks it's almost been like one storm after the other after the other after the other.
02:23 And sometimes you get a day's difference between them.
02:26 Sometimes like it was the other day where you just literally get a few hours between them and therefore you know the river goes up and maybe a slight drop and then it goes up again.
02:35 It kind of just adds on adds on adds on as each storm comes through.
02:39 So yeah hopefully fingers crossed for the dry right that we won't get that.
02:43 I did see there was some witterings because of the storm that's just been about windy weather action plans.
02:51 Has the weather the storms proved a challenge?
02:54 Yeah that was one of the reasons why we put this barrier up early because we were given heads up about the storms that were coming through that they were going to be wind warnings.
03:03 And obviously these barriers the little A-frames that go up are fine.
03:07 But as soon as you start to put the sheets metal sheets onto them first of all you've got carrying those sheets from where they're stored into the into the position where they're defending.
03:17 And then also as soon as you then start to put the plastic sheeting on them they become great big sails for want of a better phrase.
03:25 And as such you know 60 mile an hour gusts with barriers that aren't loaded with water they can start to move and shake and cause danger for the people around them.
03:38 So that's the reason why we have to think about the weather the wind speed when we're deploying these sort of things.
03:44 When's the best time to do it and when's the best time to then put the plastic sheeting on it you can see here.
03:50 So that they don't become those things that can move. They're in place and then the water starts to load them.
03:58 And a lot of people will say it's a river, river floods.
04:02 But it does seem to be something that's happening more frequently and more often. Is that the case?
04:09 When I started 30 years ago I was deployed onto a big flood and I was told Nick this is this is your one big flood of your career.
04:21 And here we are we've had big flood after big flood after big flood.
04:26 You know is this the new norm? Obviously time will tell with regard to that.
04:32 We're here we're protecting the community. It's been year after year that we've put these barriers up and we've worn and informed the community.
04:40 But that's what we're here for and that's what our mission aim is to protect and warn and inform everybody along these rivers.
04:48 Because they are beautiful places absolutely beautiful places. Very desirable places to live and have your businesses.
04:56 And we want that to continue for everybody along the River Severn, Avon, Wye, Thiem, anywhere across the country.
05:02 Amazing, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
05:05 Hi I'm David Siddoway I'm the Chief Executive at Telfth and Recon Council obviously here at Ironbridge today.
05:11 What do you think about what you're seeing here today Dave?
05:13 Yeah I mean clearly it's becoming a regular thing that we're having to deal with both the residence businesses and the council in terms of support along with the other agencies.
05:24 And you know I've been working for Telfth and Recon now for four years and this is the third time in that period.
05:32 In terms of the levels we're seeing today the peak still to come through Ironbridge.
05:37 You know we're probably not going to be at the levels we've seen at the extreme in 2020.
05:42 But it's still a significant challenge for the residents and businesses in Ironbridge.
05:47 And you've come down here in part to say thanks to staff and show them a bit of support and a bit of gratitude I believe is that right?
05:54 Yeah absolutely yeah we want to say a personal thanks to everybody involved both contractors and employees of Telfth and Recon Council for the work they've done not only today but also over the Christmas and New Year period.
06:07 They've been unbelievable in terms of their support for our residents and our businesses because it's a really challenging time for people.
06:13 It's a difficult moment and we'll be there for them to support them in terms of any transition any recovery work after the floods have come through Ironbridge.
06:23 I guess it's important to say that you know in these Shropshire towns that are being affected there are still a lot of businesses that are open and that they welcome any support they can for people coming down and rattling the tills.
06:34 Yeah it's absolutely very very important to us. It's a key priority to encourage those businesses to stay open as much as they possibly can.
06:42 And we do everything we can to help them make that happen. It's difficult times from an economic perspective as well so the importance of that is really really a priority for us.