Storm Surge

Last night saw the largest storm surge in 60 years hit the east coast and the severe flood warnings caused our local bus companies to take drastic action. Lowestoft was worse hit with most of the town centre submerged in four foot of water. Meanwhile, after college was closed at lunch time to allow students and staff to safely return home, I stayed in the town after recently becoming an admin on Twitter page YarLow Bus Delays to report on how the buses were doing in the crisis. 

Just after lunch time, Police began to evacuate people from their houses. Approximately 15,000 homes were evacuated across the region with a large proportion being in Great Yarmouth. This caused significan't delays on the buses mid afternoon but by early evening, buses were running to time.

Heavy traffic on Southtown Road at about 1300 yesterday as locals evacuate their homes.

At around 1700, buses were running exactly on time from the Market Gates. First then tweeted that they will be withdrawing all services after 2000, and due to flooding, Southtown Road was closed around that time. Depot Manager Danny Beales informed me that the depot on Caister Road had been evacuated at around half seven. Lowestofts depot on Gasworks Road was also evacuated. A similar situation took place in Ipswich last night, with Ipswich Buses temporarily moving to their London Road Park & Ride site. Haven Bridge was also shut to pedestrians and later on to traffic aswell.

The junction between Southtown Road and Haven Bridge remained shut for a number of hours.

This morning saw the river significantly lower than the previous night and the bus services seemed to be running on time.

First, anglian and other operators in the area deserve a big thank you for keeping the people of Yarmouth connected for as long as possible.