WHEN Worcester was hit by its worst flooding in 50 years, the city braced itself for inconvenience.

Roads were flooded, diversions became congested and crossing the city became a never-ending nightmare.

The pinnacle of the crisis came when Worcester City Council made the decision to close Worcester Bridge one lunchtime in November, the first time in its history.

City engineer Andy Walford has since become known as a flooding expert within the council and last week presented a string of ideas aimed at making any future flooding more bearable.

"I don't think anyone will forget those floods easily," said Mr Walford, principal engineer at Worcester City Council.

"We were involved right from the very start and soon we were getting used to 13-hour days.

"When it finished I was running on adrenaline."

The city council became a major point of contact for flood victims and other agencies. Along with the emergency services they became one of the cogs in the wheel.

"Because we'd had a lot of rain we knew the ground was saturated," said Mr Walford.

"We knew then that any news wasn't going to be good. From the control base in Shrewsbury we could find out how many flood warnings there were on the way to Worcester and what the forecast was for Wales.

"We realised this was going to be a fairly significant flood.

"One day we thought the figures were wrong and then we realised we had a serious situation on our hands.

Nightmare

"As far as the city council was concerned we told all the staff to stop all non-essential work."

The council then set up a shift system enabling 24-hour operation.

This continued for three weeks.

"It was a nightmare, but you have to look on the bright side," said Mr Walford.

"For a long, long time we were meaning to test our civil emergency procedures. In the end we didn't need to because we had the real thing.

"I think we dealt with it quite effectively.

"It wasn't just the flooding but everything else that went with it."

The closure of Worcester Bridge signalled the end of life in the city as many had known it.

The Territorial Army was called in to help ferry people across the river after the west side was cut off from the rest of the city.

"We received a lot of criticism about closing the bridge because we acted on a prediction that didn't prove to be true on that day," said Mr Walford.

"But the next day the river rose at a rapid rate. Once people saw the water they realised it was dangerous."

Plans to cope with any future flooding are already underway. Residents and workers are already bracing themselves for floods in six weeks' time.

"Hopefully it's something we won't see again," said Mr Walford.

"We can't stop flooding from taking place but we can reduce the effects.

"It will happen but we've got a plan for this year."