Flood barriers to stay up by River Severn in Shrewsbury as thaw continues
Flood barriers will remain by the River Severn in Shrewsbury this weekend as the Environment Agency issued a series of alerts.
The Environment Agency deployed the lower stages of the barriers in Frankwell on Thursday evening after Theatre Severn’s evening pantomime performance.
The water level peaked by the Welsh bridge at midday yesterday, when it was at 2.5metres, close to the levels when flooding is possible.
At the same time on Thursday, the river was rising and hit 2.2metres. In the week leading up to the snow melting the river was at less than one metre.
Meanwhile, flooding was possible in Buildwas as the water levels peaked at 3.7metres at midday yesterday, 2.5metres higher than the water level before the snow and ice thawed.
In Crudgington flooding was possible as the water peaked at 1.5metres.
While in Bridgnorth the water levels peaked at 2.9metres, which is just inside the typical range for the area.
The River Teme in Ludlow peaked at 2.1metres yesterday, one metre higher than in the week.
The River Corve in the town peaked at 2.1metres on Thursday, and settled at 1.9metres yesterday.
Flooding was possible in Onibury, where the levels were at 1.7metres yesterday, after peaking at 1.8metres in the early hours of Thursday.
Dave Throup, from the Environment Agency, said: “Things are pretty stable now, there’s still quite a bit of water to come down from the Welsh mountains.
“The rivers are going to stay high until at least Sunday.
“It’s likely they’re going to stay where they are, but they may rise a bit.
“We’ve got the low level defences up and we’re going to leave them until at least Monday.
“One of the reasons for that is we want to minimise disruption that would be caused by taking them down and putting them back up again.
“There’s no plans to put anything else in place, these will more than cater for anything else.
“By the time the water goes past Shrewsbury the levels are dropping, we’re not expecting problems in Ironbridge or Bridgnorth.”
