Actually, Bert, this wasn't a sea-flood, though it was at the spring tides. About a foot of water arrived on the High Weald within 24 hours and poured down straight off the clay hills. When it got to the floodplains, it hit the new estates and the tarmac. It was a very unusual rate of flow, quite different from the old floods (I lived in Tonbridge as a child, and remember the birds on the sportsground. The flood barrier had nothing to do with it. This time. At Maidstone, the flood was fairly well contained, but upstream at Yalding and other plain settlements, it was very bad. One guy from a new house on the FP complained that it was the third flood this year, and something should be done to prevent it. I don't know where he thought they should put it. There isn't anywhere to build containment barriers. Those above Tonbridge were inadequate.

In Sussex, where a lot of the Wealden catchment drains into the narrow gap at Lewes, the water was 20 ft deep in Harveys brewery. The lifeboat crew came up from the coast with an inflatable, and to everyone's horror, it was sucked under the bridge. Five of the crew leaped up to the balustrade, but one slipped, fortunately to be grabbed by a colleagu and rescued.

Although the sea-level rise threatens the SE, and the Thames Barrier will not last far into the next century, this was due to the increase in weird weather. The expected damage will be greater than in the 87 windstorm - more people live on the plains than hilltops. anyway, the SE is not sinking. It's just that the sea is going up faster. (Unpublished thesis of a friend.)

Penny (above the water level, and not too much rain)