Storm Babet: Lincolnshire village evacuated amid fears 100ft of river bank could burst

• Village residents remain at risk as river threatens to burst its banks

• Flood warnings still in place following Storm Babet

• Flooding sparks debate over coordination and support

Around 70 homes have been evacuated amid fears of fresh flooding as a river threatens to burst its banks in the wake of Storm Babet.

Residents in Fiskerton, near Lincoln, were told to evacuate due to potential flooding along the River Witham following the storm.

Lincolnshire County Council said the Environment Agency had confirmed there was damage to two sections of the river's bank at Fiskerton, with engineers assessing the potential for a "breach".

It said: "At present, the bank is still holding the river water in although the 70 households that have been advised to evacuate are urged not to return while the risk still remains.

"An information centre is open at Fiskerton Village Hall for residents to find more information or support to find alternative accommodation."

The council also urged people to be aware of potential scams, saying any county council officers visiting residents would have ID.

Its update said water levels remained high in some areas, but said the situation was "largely improving across the county".

On Thursday, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was working to minimise disruption after receiving a significant number of flood related calls over the preceding few days and urged people: "Please follow our advice and do not drive through flood water!"

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Michael Kheng, who posted aerial images of the flooding as TheDroneMan.net, lives in the next village and said the situation was very worrying.

He told Yahoo News UK: "The banks are holding a lot of water bank and if there is a breach there will plenty of residents of Fiskerton that will be affected and have their homes flooded.

"The level of the River Witham seems to be reducing slowly each day. The problem with the River Witham is similar to the River Steeping in Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire where the river is above ground level and has raised banks on each side. In 2019 the banks of the Steeping breached resulting in many residents of Wainfleet being flooded."

He said the situation was exacerbated because the flooding meant the Environment Agency could not access certain areas to carry out repairs, adding: "It's all very worrying."

Despite being advised to evacuate on Tuesday, some residents chose to stay.

Sean Tyler, 27, told The Lincolnite: "It's the worst I've ever seen it, and the river keeps going up after more rainwater.

"If it goes, it'll go. We've been told we could have an hour's notice of it bursting — or 30 seconds. The way it was described to me was if two fire doors swung open and it had a thousand people rushing through it in a minute. They won't be able to stop it."

Two months' rain in 24 hours

On Friday morning, 34 road closures remained listed on Lincolnshire County Council's website, which said it was reviewing them and where possible, taking them down to free up routes.

It said: "With the situation changing so fast, there may well be roads reopened before we hear about them. If you see closure signs being lifted by our officers, or the police, please still take great care getting about."

The council repeated warnings not to drive through water, saying Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue had dealt with 14 incidents of vehicles becoming trapped after driving through floods.

It added: "Lincolnshire saw the equivalent of two months’ worth of rain falling in less than 24 hours.

"As all that water works its way through the system, if you spot further issues with flooding on the roads, please report them to us."

Could flooding be prevented?

Flooding caused by Storm Babet has reignited a debate over what can be done to prevent it.

Labour’s shadow environment secretary Steve Reed accused the government of making "weak excuses" after Therese Coffey claimed the damage done by Storm Babet was harder to predict because rain came in from the east.

Reed told LBC: "The problem if you talk to people on the ground and they’ll tell you is a lack of co-ordination, so in Retford, people that were made homeless were told to go to the local leisure centre and it was closed – a lack of co-ordination.

"People were telling me up in the same place that floods happened in 2007, there has been funding allocated since then to put in place diversionary schemes, but it hasn’t been spent – a lack of co-ordination."

Firefighters have also called for urgent investment to ensure the "dangerously overstretched" fire service is prepared for flooding in future.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) claimed that in areas of Nottinghamshire the fire service did not have enough resources to respond to all emergency calls.

The service was unable to respond to 72 incidents on 20 October, the height of the flooding, due to a lack of resources, according to the union.