wrote:
By Nigel Morris
The Independent (extract)
Published: 09 November 2007

"Much of the east coast of England has been placed on severe flood
alert amid fears that lives could be lost and property destroyed by a
huge tidal surge.
Gordon Brown chaired an emergency meeting last night to discuss the
threat from a 10ft wall of water whipped up by gale-force winds racing
down the North Sea.
Eight severe flood warnings were announced around the East Anglian
coast, with Norfolk and Suffolk expected to bear the brunt of the
massive waves early this morning.
Amid fears that sea defences could be breached across the region, an
emergency operation swung into action in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Thirty thousand sandbags were distributed in the town which suffered
severe flooding just a year ago.
Elderly and vulnerable people were moved out of low-lying areas and 14
emergency centres were set up in readiness for people forced to leave
their homes. All schools in Great Yarmouth will stay closed today.
Residents near low-lying sections of the Suffolk coast were advised to
leave their homes as up to 1,300 properties could be hit by the
highest floods for half a century.
Ten flood warnings were also issued - six covering vulnerable parts of
the north Norfolk coast, such as Brancaster, one in the Norfolk Broads
and three around the North Yorkshire towns of Whitby and Scarborough.
Twenty-four further flood alerts were sounded covering virtually the
entire eastern coast from Northumberland to Kent. Among the areas
covered were the Humber estuary, the Lincolnshire coast, the Essex
towns of Clacton and Southend and sections of the Kent coast,
including the Isle of Sheppey and Margate. All were said to be at risk
of localised flooding. An Environment Agency spokesman warned: "We
expect flooding. We're warning people there's an extreme danger to
life and property."
The Dartford Creek and Thames barriers were shut last night to protect
the capital from the surge of water. Andy Batchelor, the Thames tidal
flood risk manager, said: "These closures... serve as a reminder to us
all that living in the flood plain is never without risk."
Emergency preparations for the tidal surge were also underway across
the North Sea in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The Prime Minister called a meeting of the Cobra emergency response
committee. John Healey, the Floods minister, said: "We are making sure
that the public are getting the information they need to prepare as
best they can. Cobra will be on full alert through the night and the
Prime Minister will be keeping in close touch."
Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, warned MPs last night of
potentially serious flooding over the next 48 hours.
Mr Benn told MPs: "A tidal surge of up to three metres is making its
way down the North Sea which could coincide with peak high tides.
There is a risk of flood defences being over-topped on the coast and
in tidal rivers, especially in East Anglia, particularly the Norfolk
Broads and the coast south of Great Yarmouth including Lowestoft, and
areas south of this as far as the coast of Kent."
The Environment Agency warned that the conditions were similar to
those before the notorious floods of 1953, when more than 300 people
died after large parts of the East Anglia coast were left under water.
"It's comparable but we're much better prepared now," a spokesman
said."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/thi...cle3143252.ece

Thanks for posting this. The UK Met Office issued a News Release today
congratulating itself on its accurate forecasting of this event, and
warning about climate change producing more such events in coming
years:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporat...r20071109.html

Highest storm surge for decades

Accurate and consistent forecasts from the Met Office helped the
Environment Agency and emergency services take decisive action, after
England's east coast experienced one of the highest storm surges and
tides for several decades.

Meanwhile, studies of climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre
suggest that in the future the height of coastal floods is likely to
increase, potentially causing more damage.

.... The storm surge was one of the highest since the 1953 east coast
floods, which claimed hundreds of lives. It was fortunate that the
recent surge did not coincide with high tide times. ...

--- END OF EXCERPT FROM UK MET OFFICE NEWS RELEASE ---

If the Met Office forecasts were lauditory in this case, then what
kind of superlatives would best describe the long range forecast for
severe disruptive storm, previously discussed here (in
sci.environment) by you and others, produced by Piers Corbyn's Weather
Action. Cobyn reports using predictable solar changes as a basis for
forecasting weather here on Earth many months in advance. Changes in
Earth's magnetic field also have significant influence on how the
solar changes get expressed, weatherwise, he says. He does not give a
whit of credit to recent (decadal/century) atmospheric CO2 trends in
terms of influence on weather or climate.

Best wishes,

Steve Schulin
http://www.nuclear.com
and coming soon: http://www.calamitology.com

[uk.sci.weather added]