Town flooded after delay over barrier, report says

Parts of Ryde were left waist-deep in water during the 2023 flooding

More than 100 properties were flooded after a defensive barrier was only partially sealed after a delay of more than two hours, a report has found.

Water submerged streets and basements in Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 25 October 2023 following a night of extreme rainfall.

However, consultancy firm JBA said it could not determine whether the Environment Agency's decision not to build up the barrier to its maximum height made the flooding worse.

The agency said it had since improved the flood defences and the way they were operated.

The "intense" rainstorm exceeded forecasts and caught the Environment Agency (EA) with only one emergency team on standby, JBA said.

The deluge filled cellars and stranded cars by 10:00 BST, according to residents.

In The Strand, a pregnant nurse told the BBC she had to dive underwater to escape her basement flat.

The floods submerged streets and basements

The report said the EA decided to partially seal the flood barrier as a precaution at 03:01.

However, it was unable to contact its contractor ATM in a series of texts and phone calls.

At 04:15, water began to pour from Monktonmead Brook into Simeon Street Recreation Ground, which is designed to contain floods behind a wall.

A second contractor finally sealed the wall at 05:19, more than two hours after the decision was made, JBA said.

Only two out of five or six "stop logs" or drop boards were installed in each of three gaps in the barrier, the report added.

The Simeon Rec flood wall has gaps where boards can be fitted to contain water

The contractor was then sent to an emergency in Newport rather than staying to monitor the situation as protocol dictated, according to JBA.

Its report concluded: "Floodwater in the recreation ground should have been able to have been contained, with some remaining capacity, if the stop logs had been installed fully.

"It was not possible for the incident response contractor to complete the installation as they were unable to return to the site due to flooding.

"Was the flooding of nearby houses exacerbated by the fact that only two boards were fixed at each opening? Not possible to determine at this stage."

JBA, which was commissioned by the EA to write the "phase one" report, recommended "further hydraulic modelling work" in order to fully learn lessons.

Ryde resident Dan Thomas, whose home was flooded, said the report was overdue and incomplete.

He said: "I don't think enough attention has been given to the outflow of water from the recreation ground.

"Why wasn't the water expelled by the time of the high tide at 09:00?"

In a statement, the EA said: "The flooding in 2023 was caused by some of the most intense rainfall that the Isle of Wight has ever seen.

"There are aspects of our response that we would now do differently based on the learning from this incident.

"We have built these improvements into the defence structures themselves and how they operate."

The agency said the improvements included additional flood valves and non-return systems as well as training local volunteers to deploy barriers.