That's handy then...

[DBA_bloke]

So the resulting flood waters would have been lower and less houses would have been effected.

(grammar) fewer

[BoredBloke]

not sure I get this bit

"The agency said even if they had been in place, the water would have topped them."

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the job of these flood barriers to keep the water in the river, so that it eventually makes its was to the sea - like rivers do. So if they had been in place, then the parts which flooded would only have suffered flooding caused my say the 10% which toped the barriers and not the whole 100% which caused the damage due to no barriers being put up. So the resulting flood waters would have been lower and less houses would have been effected.

[zeitghost]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...cs/6978118.stm

The bit I like is the "flood barriers were stored 30 miles away in a secret location coz of their scrap value"...

Lemme guess... the other side of the river?