From the UK Telegraph:
Somerset Floods: Village submerged after alleged tampering of sluice gate
Two men have been linked to a deluge that devastated parts of Somerset during some of the worst floods on British records.
A Telegraph investigation has found that a sluice gate used to control water flow from a river to a moor had apparently been unlawfully opened before the nearby village of Thorney was inundated last winter.
Water drained into the moor and the entire village was submerged in 4ft of water for 12 weeks. Ancient houses were destroyed and some residents are still without a home.
The chaos was part of the wider floods that swept through Britain, which caused a political crisis and was blamed on the Environment Agency’s failure to dredge local rivers.
And one of the people:
One of the men, Lee Goddard, who lives in Hambridge, Somerset, pleaded guilty in August to contravening land drainage laws when he “interfered” with the sluice. Residents have alleged that he wanted to save his own land from water by diverting it elsewhere.
Mr. Goddard is going to be long remembered but I do not think this is the kind of fame he was hoping for.
