Earth News: EnglandSept 25, 2006
Hundreds of people today battled flash floods after drainage systems in two coastal towns were "overwhelmed" by torrential rain, a water company said.
More than 90 properties, including schools and businesses, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and Lowestoft, Suffolk were affected, Anglian Water said.
Floods were said to be several feet deep in places in Great Yarmouth, which was the worst hit area, and police said a number of roads were blocked.
Water company officials said the problems had been exacerbated by a blockage in a pump at a drainage station.
"The system is designed to cope with a certain amount of rain but it has been so heavy in the early hours that the network has been overwhelmed," said an Anglian Water spokeswoman.
"Ten properties in Lowestoft have been affected by internal flooding and 50 by external flooding.
"Six properties in Great Yarmouth have been affected by internal flooding and 25 by external flooding.
"I don't know how much rain has fallen but it's been a huge amount.
HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING
AUSTRALIA - Thousands of dollars damage was caused when violent wind storms lashed the Lithgow district and Blue Mountains on Sunday. The gales were part of an extreme weather front that affected much of south eastern NSW, leaving a trail of destruction and bringing an ominously early start to the bushfire season. Wind gusts were reported by the Weather Bureau to have been up to 100 kph, bringing THE MOST EXTREME WIND EXPERIENCE IN RECENT YEARS. This prompted the Rural Fire Service to declare the region's first total fire ban for the year, a situation normally encountered in peak Summer rather than early Spring.
KENTUCKY - USA. Heavy flooding rain, 8.95 inches of rain over 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, was probably a 200-year rain. Heavy rain last November was a 300-year rain. Both are RARE in themselves, but to get both in the span of one year, as well as other smaller rain events that have also caused flooding - that is something that stormwater systems are just not designed to handle. "They usually don't go to the extent of designing for anything more than a 50- to 100-year storm. It's just not economically possible to do that."
