Floods: Householders on alert (From Witney Gazette)

Floods: Householders on alert

11:10pm Wednesday 16th January 2008

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HOUSEHOLDERS are on high alert in the Botley Road and Abingdon Road areas of Oxford tonight as the Environment Agency warns water levels will rise in the next 48 hours.

Firefighters are still at work on Osney Island where West Street is closed as crews put in place inflatable flood defences.

Firefighter Richard Bowley said: "We are working on behalf of the Environment Agency, putting in waterproof defences to mitigate flooding.

"We have been advised that there will be a steady peak of water, so we are doing a lot of preparation."

Firefighters and police are carrying out door-to-door calls in Osney and Botley, advising people on preventative action and also ascertaining which residents might need assistance in the event of evacuation.

In Duke Street and Earl Street, off Botley Road, sandbags are piled high against doorways, and in Bullstake Close residents have stacked sandbags several feet high and draped them with tarpaulin in a bid to keep the swollen Bullstake Stream from their doors.

Riverside Road resident Harley Pouget said he would be putting sandbags outside his door as a matter of course, but said: "I'm not really nervous. This has happened five or six times now in the 20 years I have been living here."

Oxfordshire County Council's emergency planning team has been working together with its highways department, Oxfordshire Fire Service, Thames Valley Police and the Environment Agency to ensure everyone living in the "at risk" areas is given advice and support.

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