Severe flooding in Germany should be a 'timely' reminder of the North East’s own brushes with extreme weather, environment chiefs have said.
At least 90 people are believed to have died and hundreds more are still unaccounted for across north west Europe after record rainfall hit the region.
And it has prompted bosses responsible for managing landscapes and defences to warn of the need for vigilance.
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“I’m sure you’ve all seen what is going on in Germany and Holland today, where horrific flooding is taking place through massive amounts of rainfall,” said Phil Rothwell, chairman of the Northumbria Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC).
“It’s beyond anything people have experienced in recent years and getting on for 80 or 90 fatalities.
“This is a very dreadful thing, but if that weather system had been 300 miles further to the west, that might have been us [in the North East] on the telly, not Germany or Holland.
“It is very much a timely warning that what we do helps deal with the types of problems they’re having at the moment.”
The North East was last battered by extreme weather in 2015, when Storm Desmond brought chaos to the region, as well as Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Scottish Borders, Wales and Ireland.
In Northumberland, families had to be evacuated from their homes as the county was hit by high winds of up to 80mph and heavy rain which caused rivers to burst their banks.
This included the River Tyne reaching its highest level since Environment Agency (EA) records began.
Northumberland County Councillor for Corbridge Nick Oliver told Friday’s meeting of the RFCC: “If I had been sitting [at home] in December 2015 during Storm Desmond I would actually have been underwater.”
Last year, the EA confirmed plans to spend £10m over the next six years improving flood defences in the Tyne Valley.
According to reports, while Germany has been the country worst affected in the recent floods, Belgium has reported at least 12 dead, while the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland have also been affected.
