The water levels on the river Nene are controlled by the E/A via the barrage and the washlands at Northampton, this was designed to prevent Northampton from flooding. In the event that we receive extreme amounts of rain, water is collected and stored at the washlands and then released as and when possible. Under normal conditions and normal rainfall this works very well, to the point that you hardly notice a change in the river levels. The problem arises when everything goes into overload due to extreme weather conditions. To enable some semblance of control it is required to deliberately flood the floodplains, Billing Aquadrome exists upon one of these floodplains, when this situation arises the E/A advises Billing Aquadrome that this is going to happen, the problem that the E/A have is that because of high level of water in storage (due to continuous heacy rainfall) coupled with the big unknown of how much more rain will fall over the next few days they can only control the discharge to try and maintain a balance between what is being released and what is still flowing in from upstream. It is because of this unknown quantity of flooding that the management of Billing Aquadrome and Billing Marina have to make the decision to evacuate. It would be irresponsible of them to ignore the advice given, especially when life could be put at risk. Once this decision has beeen made the emergency services take over, there is a flood risk assessment for Billing Aquadrome and this then swings into place. The threat of arrest is to protect individuals who cannot see the dangers that could occur because of the unknown level of flooding. Under flood conditions the roads disappear and lakeside edges and streams converge into one very large lake, this could happen at night and the electricity supply could be lost so the park would be in complete darkness making a very dangerous situation, this is not a scenario you would want to subject people to. The first concern is to protect life, anything else is replaceable. The park management understands and sympathises with people's reactions to being uprooted from their homes, whether it be a lakeside lodge, caravan or boat, but the first and only concern is for their wellbeing.
The marina water level rose by eight feet of water, even the adjoining hotel had to be evacuated, with the marina being on floating pontoons adjusting ropes was not required,and all moorers were allowed back on to the marina daily to allow them to check the boats with access only being possible by dinghy due to the landbridge being three feet under water.
Billing Aquadrome management came in for a great deal of criticism from both caravaners and moorers, it possibly appeared to them that no one cared. Let me tell you that was far from the case - a small team that were allowed to remain worked tirelessly to protect both property and boats while senior management battled with the authorities to try and establish an early return, all of this goes unseen and criticism, although understandable, is not nice to take. The nett result upon returning was that there had been no loss of life and not one single property had been flooded with the exception of some sheds.
I feel very sorry for Tree, I was the one who had to give her the bad news, why Free Spirt went down is still unknown. She is due to be raised sometime next week by divers and air bags and then possibly the cause may be revealed. I hope this goes someway to explain what has to happen in circumstances like this which unfortunately causes opinions to be formed with the lack of information, evoking all kinds of emotions.