Warning floods around Lincolnshire could become more frequent

6 months on from Storm Babet and the ground in the county remains saturated

Flooding in Lincoln
Author: Andy MarshPublished 27th Apr 2024

Lincolnshire's Chief Fire Officer is warning people in and around South Kesteven may have to get used to flooding becoming more frequent.

Heavy rainfall during Storm Babet caused major flooding to some houses and farmland last October.

Mark Baxter, who also chairs Lincolnshire's Resilience Forum, says the ground 'remains saturated', meaning the risk of flooding hasn't completely gone away.

He told us: "It can happen at any time during the year now, often outside of what we would have traditionally called our flooding seasons."

"There is an awful lot of work to do in regard of the monitoring, so everyone can be as best prepared as they can."

'We know that we are getting more severe weather events'

Mr Baxter added: "Our land is still absolutely saturated and it doesn't take much for the tolerances to get breached and we get flooding."

"We also know that we are getting more severe weather events."

"We are a very rural and farming community centred county - it is often our farming community where some of the people have stepped forward and see what they can do to help - often sacrificing their own land .

"That does have an impact on their own livelihood."

"I think it's so easy for people who haven't been affected by flooding to have moved on but actually the many people in the county of Lincolnshire that have been affected with those periods of floods - it's still real and it's still with them."

"It's a really timely reminder that flooding is a real risk for us."

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