The scale of work undertaken since the storm includes:
- Clearing and jetting of 8,412 drains
- Removing 121 trees blocking roads
- Cleared flood water from 198 locations
- Repairing 1,200 road and pavement potholes
- Contacting landowners about blocked private watercourses and roadside ditches, which are generally their responsibility to maintain.
The areas worst hit by the storm, including Debenham, Framlingham, Needham Market and Cavendish have all had their drains blitzed to clear tonnes of silt, leaves and other debris that has been washing into them as flood waters have subsided.
After drains are cleared, water from large tankers is run through them to check they are operating and if they are not, high pressure jets can be brought in to clear any blockages. In extreme cases, cameras are used to locate hidden blockages and then work is scheduled to dig up the pipes and fix the issues.
Councillor Steve Wiles, Deputy Cabinet Member for highways drainage and now also providing an additional focus on wider flood prevention post storm Babet, said:
“Storm Babet was an exceptional and sustained downpour, with water running off fields and overwhelming riverbanks and roadside ditches, and exceeding the capacity of road drains as more than a month’s worth of average rainfall for East Anglia fell in just 24 to 36 hours.
“The deluge of rain has needed significant additional work to clear and I am thankful to our highways staff for their hard work, especially in the areas worst hit.
“There is a significant amount of work being done by our district and borough council colleagues to help residents recover from the floods, including making payments from the Government’s flood relief programme. Eligible residents will start receiving grants and council tax discounts during November.
“In the coming months and years, there will be much work for councils, emergency services and residents to ensure they are as prepared as possible for extreme weather.”
Suffolk County Council is also pumping an extra £10 million into drain and gully clearing projects.
135 drainage sites were addressed during 2022/23 and 89 new projects are currently in the design phase with the county council’s new highways partner Milestone. This is in addition to Suffolk’s annual drain clearing programme which saw 111,000 drains cleared last year.
The county council has also gathered over 800 reports of flooding to homes and businesses, to enable owners to access funding from the Government. Suffolk councils are working together, with Suffolk County Council collecting information and assessing the reports, and the district and borough councils distributing the funding to eligible property owners.
Eligible residents who experienced exceptional property flooding during Storm Babet and have reported this to the county council, will start receiving financial support during November.
