1953 East coast floods

Posted: December 8, 2009 
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Photos taken by the RAF have been declassified, showing the damage to the East coast caused by the 1953 floods.In the early part of 1953 there was a King Tide accompanied by hurricane force winds which struck the east coast of England and also the Netherlands, causing great amounts of flooding in those low-lying areas close to the North Sea. Many of the Canadian Airmen volunteered to help out in the flood stricken areas af England. So one day I found myself driving a forty passenger bus filled with Airmen and lots of flood fighting gear across to the area near Yarmouth. We were quartered in RAF barracks on an RAF unit near Horsham-Saint- Faiths. From there I drove our volunteer flood-fighters east to the area around the city of Yarmouth where they were engaged in filling sand bags and with them repairing breaches in the dikes that had resulted from the great storm. I drove them there in the mornings and drove them back to the RAF Station in the evenings. In between times I helped with the flood-fighting work. My friend, Bud Pitts arrived about one day after I did, driving another load of RCAF Airmen flood-fighters from our base at North Luffenham. Bud and I really had no specific duties to perform other than to provide transportation where needed for the flood-fighters, so we were able to move about quite freely from flood site to flood site so long as we were back to the rendez-vous place when required.