Canvey Island’s Flood Warning Sirens to be Scrapped
May 1st, 2012 | by Sean |I grew up on Canvey Island. I left it nearly 25 years ago but visit my parents there when I can. I like to read the Echo‘s headlines email and was sad to see this one: Island’s flood sirens to be scrapped for good. This is an example of the siren subject of the article:
The sirens were used until recently for flood warnings, but by the sounds of this article, could originally have been air raid sirens. I’m sure there was once one near the end of Florence Road on Canvey Island, but StreetView doesn’t confirm it, so perhaps my memory’s faulty. The siren in the YouTube video was still there when the StreetView car last went past though. As much as the sirens are a part of the Island’s heritage, and – to my mind – a much more realistic warning system than a text message (have the people who make these decisions ever spent any time on Canvey Island and used a mobile phone indoors there?), I really don’t understand the rationale for scrapping them as the Echo presents it.
According to the article, two companies with local presence are prepared to stump up the running costs of the sirens. If that’s true then the suggestion that there’s some saving to be made by choosing the modern system (‘outdated’ – the other justification – seems so fecklessly heartless) appears to be unfounded. I sent emails to Oikos, Calor to ask for more information and English Heritage to see if there’s any way to protect these quiet guardians and little pieces of Canvey’s history. If I find out anything of value, I’ll post it here.
Some older articles on the same subject:
Who is to blame for flood siren removal?
Hundreds will not get vital flood warning
I see a comment on the Echo’s article to the effect that the last flood’s death toll was due to the type of construction prevalent at the time:
Plus, let’s not forget the 1953 floods killed so many due to Canvey being covered in lightly built bungalows. These days the majority of people live in substantially built houses, the highest flood water in ’53 would barely reach the ground floor ceiling of modern properties.
See this article from floodsite.net with a lovely photograph of some new Canvey development (scroll to the bottom of the page). Floodsite also have a marvellous video on their website that seems to have been made soon after the flood. I can’t see a copy of that video anywhere else on the WWW and floodsite don’t state its provenance, so I’m going to copy it here, just in case:
I wish more people would do this: someone here interviews their granddad to capture his memories of the event. Excellent job!