Around 40mm of rainfall fell in a short time on Sunday in the Herne Bay area and following this exceptionally heavy rainfall we responded to reports of flooding of basement properties. Our analysis shows this was a 1 in 50 year rainfall event.
Our customer service teams and clean-up crews continue to support affected residents. We have now disinfected and been using dehumidifiers in all homes and are also helping to assess and document any damage at this difficult time.
We believe the properties have been affected by a combination of surface water flooding and internal flooding that happened when the sewer system was overwhelmed by the extreme rainfall. Levels in some areas were so high the sewers were full and backed up.
We continue to investigate an issue where storm pumps may have failed to start up initially although it is not yet known if internal flooding could have been avoided. As a precaution, if any rain is forecast for the area we will have technicians onsite until we are able to confirm the issue .