A drone’s view of Rye Harbour’s RNLI lifeboat shed and Sailing Club beyond (above) shows that while Rye may have escaped the worst that last weekend’s high tides (September 28 and 29) might have delivered, Rye Harbour was not so fortunate.
However that could have been worse had not much of the incoming tide been siphoned off into the nature reserve (on the right in the photo above) turning it slowly into an ever growing lake (as the photo to the left shows in more detail).
The top photo also shows in the distance on the right-hand bank the half-built Discovery Centre for the reserve, looking rather like a large boat heading out into the channel.
Its design however has anticipated possible floods like these and future visitors should be well above any incoming water and the only delay to building work caused by the tides was to the installation of some of the windows.
However visitors to the Bosun’s Bite (shown right) clearly took King Canute’s attitude to rising waters and carried on supping their beverages while RNLI publicity officer KT Bruce took emergency action.
And, back in Rye, motorists did their best to cope with the usual flooding in Winchelsea Road.
However most of the flooding was contained by the existing defences in Rye. Longer term though there may be causes for concern when high tides flood in even if this past weekend was mainly picturesque as the photo below shows.
Image Credits: Owen Kemp , Kt Bruce , John Minter .
Rye Harbour wasn’t so fortunate?
The lifeboat shed, sailing club, Rye Marine and Bosuns bite are all built on the river side of the flood defences so get visited by the big tides regularly.
The bird reserve and environment Agency spent a vast amount of money building an inlet to allow the river to flood the wet lands, so no big deal or fortunate escape for the village on that one.
What has happened is that someone has produced some excellent drone photos and that’s about the only new thing that happened last week.
As for global warming, almost every one of those boats in the photos is made of plastic and will be here long after most of us are gone.