Storm Babet: Nearly 600 Lincolnshire properties flooded, meeting told

A Tesco store in Horncastle was swamped by flood water

Nearly 600 properties in Lincolnshire were flooded during Storm Babet, council bosses have said.

Lincolnshire County Council's Colin Davie said 583 properties, including four schools, suffered internal flooding as a result of the storm.

However, he told a meeting that number was expected to rise.

Mr Davie said there had also been "hundreds and hundreds" of near misses, with water entering people's gardens and almost reaching their homes.

"It was quite clearly a substantial event and there is going to be some enormous pressure in terms of how we deal with [investigatory] work," he told a meeting of the authority's executive committee.

"The 583 will not be the final number… most people will appreciate that if someone has water in their home, their first response will be dealing with the immediate issue - making sure they can live and function - before calling to tell us they were flooded."

Residential areas of Horncastle have also seen significant flooding

Mr Davie, executive member for environment, said there continued to be flooding in various parts of the county and that it was going to take a "considerable period of time" to resolve the issue.

"We also have to hope and pray that we don't get even further heavy rainfalls now that the ground is totally saturated," he added.

A drone image showing part of Lincoln city centre flooded

Mr Davie said it was likely to be "a challenging winter", the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported, and warned that Storm Babet was a reminder that "we need to be much more careful about where we build in the future".

Ben Thornely, the Environment Agency's area flood risk manager, previously said "between a month and two months of rain" fell in 24 hours in some parts of the UK.

He urged people to ensure they had signed up for flood alerts by entering their details on the agency's website.