More than a million people live in London’s flood plains, and they should be worried. Longer term (think a dozen years) the Thames Barrier is not going to be sufficient to hold back the tides. I guess someone somewhere has this in hand? But even right now things look pretty grim. Since being built in 1982 it is raised in anger around 4 times a year. Just in the last 4 DAYS it has been raised 3 times. oops.
It is unusual to close it so often in such a short space of time, but our job is to monitor tidal levels and the weather to ensure we close the barrier if necessary, which it has been over the past few days. It highlights just how necessary the Thames Barrier is to help reduce the risk of flooding in London and it serves as a reminder to us all that living in the flood plain is never without risk.
