When you have survived the worst floods in living memory you do not expect a reminder just weeks later. Residents of Malton and Norton had barely dried out their homes when they were issued with fresh sandbags last night. For a few awful hours, it seemed that the "once-in-a-lifetime" flood was about to happen again.

With hindsight, the protection measures were not needed. Some may feel aggrieved today that they were put on alert for no reason.

The terrible scenes after the River Derwent burst its banks are still very vivid in people's memories. Heavy rainfall over the last few days will have played on people's fears. For those in the risk areas who were issued with sandbags, it would have been a tense night.

But it is better to be safe than sorry. The Environment Agency, mindful to accusations that it did not give residents enough warnings last time, was monitoring the situation very closely.

When agency officials sent out regular updates on the changing state of the river, they were doing their job. It is far better to risk alarming residents by keeping them fully informed than to leave them in the dark.

The Environment Agency reacted to the criticism after the floods by reviewing its procedures. It is committed to improving its flood forecasting, warning and emergency response. Those changes are designed to ensure that more people are alerted sooner.

After the trauma of recent weeks, it will take time for the flood-hit residents of the Derwent basin to feel entirely safe in their own homes. The Environment Agency's revised flood warning procedures may also take some getting used to. People will have to learn over again when it is appropriate simply to note an agency bulletin and when it is necessary to take action to protect family and property.

This continuing confusion illustrates why a public inquiry into the handling of the flood was needed. Ryedale MP John Greenway asked the Government to set up such an inquiry because "people here have no confidence in the Environment Agency to investigate itself". Disappointingly, ministers have turned down his request.

Everyone has said lessons need to be learned from this disaster. A public inquiry would have been the best forum to identify those lessons. Instead, we have to trust that the Environment Agency's internal investigation, allied to an external assessment of the floods, will do the job.

see NEWS 'Sandbags issued in flood alert'

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.