The Strategic Risk Flood Assessment report gives south Essex flood defences a clean bill of health. It has been welcomed with delight and relief by public figures who, until now, have had to ward off a succession of environmental doom-mongers, convinced Hurricane Katrina 2 could happen here.

The report means that it will be hard for even the most dedicated pessimist to make a case. The report has harnessed all the powers of modern digital technology to create an impressively precise analysis - one that it will be hard to challenge on any scientific basis.

The report is, in particular, a tribute to the quality of the 50-year-old sea defences, built in the aftermath of the 1953 flood in the determination that such a disaster should never happen again.

Yet anybody who witnessed the wild seas along the Essex coastline yesterday, caught spectacularly by our photographers, must still retain a nugget of doubt.

The report must not be interpreted as an invitation to drop our guard. The results of complacency were learnt the hard way by a previous generation. 1,000 years of safety, as beckoned in the report, depends on 1,000 years of vigilance and deep respect for the power of the sea.