Flooding - Whats going on?

[buzyg]

It has been a bit blowy down here in Cornwall. Good surf though.

I did a little research a couple of weeks back and there where about 30-40 square miles flooded. That's a pretty big area. Fortunately most of it is unpopulated flood plain. Ie it floods most years. It would appear that it has been worse, the past two years, due to heavyer than normal rainfall. I think we can all relate to that one. As to the rivers needing dredging I'll leave that to the experts on the ground.

Down here in Cornwall many of the sea side towns flood several times a year most years. Yes it must be a pain for the residents but most except it and get on with life. Looe has been flooded twice again this week.

A little closer to home for me, every one working in the dockyard, received an e-mail at 08:00 this morning, warning us to move our cars, if they were parked in Morris Yard, as it was expected to flood (again) at high tide.

 

[buzyg]

Found the site I was looking at a couple of weeks back. Some interesting reading for those interested.

http://www.disasterscharter.org/web/charter/activation_details?p_r_p_1415474252_assetId=ACT-472

 

[inkey$]

Found the site I was looking at a couple of weeks back. Some interesting reading for those interested.

http://www.disasterscharter.org/web/charter/activation_details?p_r_p_1415474252_assetId=ACT-472

Now this is a disaster. 18k people evacuated!
http://www.disasterscharter.org/web/charter/activation_details?p_r_p_1415474252_assetId=ACT-465

Good website

 

[envy]

could be worse, no sink holes have popped up yet

 

[-Tom-]

could be worse, no sink holes have popped up yet

Did you happen to watch the documentary last night on them? Crazy!!!!

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[sbtwister]

We've had 1.1 inches of rain here TOTAL, in the past year. Maybe send a little our way?

 

[buzyg]

We've had 1.1 inches of rain here TOTAL, in the past year. Maybe send a little our way?

Ten minutes of Cornish sunshine should double that for you.

 

[MrPT]

Being a Somerset resident, I can say that it's only a small area. We have not been affected at all, although where it is bad, it's really bad.

Yes, Somerset is big and most of it is not underwater. I work here 4 days a week and the biggest puddle I have driven through was about 5cm deep and a metre across.

 

[buzyg]

Being a Somerset resident, I can say that it's only a small area. We have not been affected at all, although where it is bad, it's really bad.

Yes, Somerset is big and most of it is not underwater. I work here 4 days a week and the biggest puddle I have driven through was about 5cm deep and a metre across.

Did you check out the satellight imaged in the preveous link I put up.

Quite a large puddle.

 

[MrPT]

Being a Somerset resident, I can say that it's only a small area. We have not been affected at all, although where it is bad, it's really bad.

Yes, Somerset is big and most of it is not underwater. I work here 4 days a week and the biggest puddle I have driven through was about 5cm deep and a metre across.

Did you check out the satellight imaged in the preveous link I put up.

Quite a large puddle.

Yes, it is! That map is only about 25km across though - I'm actually living on it right now.

Don't mean to be disrespectful to those affected, of course; I just thinking it's amusing that my family and friends constantly say things like "be careful down there", based on what they see in the media, and the reality is that I zoom into work every week via the M5 or A303 and the conditions, assuming you are not in one of the badly flooded areas, are not that much worse than they are in the rest of the UK at the moment.

 

[Ewazix]

Just to dispel the impression that it's farms and the odd bumkin's cottages going under in Somerset, whole villages are being swamped! But it's nice to know that the £3 million the Environment Agency saved on dredging was pee'd in to the £20 million pot used to develop a new bird wetland reserve,





as Lord Chris Smith from the Environment Agency said, difficult choices do have to be made

 

[Nur5ey]

Absolutely terrible...I heart goes out to the guys down there....

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[si-forks]

My home town of Worcester is now cut in half as the city bridge is now closed for safety reasons

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[TitanTim]

The Government have made a right b*lls up on this although I'm not convinced dredging would have stopped entirely what were seeing now, it would have helped but we have to remember the Gulf Stream has shifted hence unprecedented rain fall since the 18th Century. With hindsight we would have built more flood defences etc but I don't think flood defences are much help against rising water tables coming up under peoples properties.

Tim.

 

[lux]

My home town of Worcester is now cut in half as the city bridge is now closed for safety reasons

I suppose Ostlers is under water again! I know a guy that used to own that place, regularly flooded.

 

[Silverfox]

Things look pretty severe on this street in Somerset even the Navy are involved :wink:

 

[MHZ4C]

That pic's good! Feel for the house with the X5 nearly in the front room. Better off than a lot though. Hope it dries up soon.

 

[buzyg]

I've been watching one family’s battle with the elements over the past few weeks. The sturdy looking sea defences, put in place a few years back were wiped out by storm Hercules, a few weeks ago. Since then every time I'm surfing that beach, there have been lorry loads of Massive stones and ton size sand bags, being hauled into position, to protect the stone bridge and the garden.

Despite these efforts each following storm has been smashing into the soft sand being the shattered defences and carting it away feet at a time. Since last weekend the granite stone wall at the end of their garden had completely gone. Originally that was some 20ft from the edge of the bank.

Finally today it looks like they might be getting even with the elements again. They now have the entire length of the original defences replaced by large boulders. Let’s hope so. Must have cost a small fortune, but clearly whoever is paying, thinks it’s well worth it.

I assume the bridge is owned by the highways agency, and that did seem to be the priority in the early days. So may not be the home owner footing the whole bill.

 

[original guvnor]

I must admit I get arsed off with people blaming the Environment Agency/government all the time - there always has to be someone who's fault it is. Typical of the blame culture that has developed and now you have bandwagon-jumper-in-chief Farage turning up to try and piggy back on anything to buy a vote. We've had the most rain since 1760. What exactly do people expect them to have done? There is also a lot of divided opinion on the merits of dredging. Some experts reckon it would make things worse not better by speeding up the flow of water and passing the problem on further down the line. The fact is that there is a s**t load of water that we can't get rid of because we've had unprecedented levels of rainfall.

You could say if you are worried about flooding then don't live below sea-level on reclaimed land next to a bloody big river and don't make a living as a farmer on wetlands that are prone to regular floods. Oh and as for criticising the decision to try and protect wildlife, I bet the locals were some of the strongest advocates of the designation of Sites of Special Scientific Research and Special Protection Areas.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who's houses and livelihoods have been ruined but I find that sympathy running out very quickly when they start blaming people for a sequence of weather events that are extraordinary.

You can also bet that when they try to re-route that train line away from Dawlish to an inland route the NIMBY's in the local area will tie the whole process up in planning delays/inquiries etc and it won't get done for another few decades or so.

 

[Ewazix]

I must admit I get arsed off with people blaming the Environment Agency/government all the time - there always has to be someone who's fault it is. Typical of the blame culture that has developed and now you have bandwagon-jumper-in-chief Farage turning up to try and piggy back on anything to buy a vote. We've had the most rain since 1760. What exactly do people expect them to have done? There is also a lot of divided opinion on the merits of dredging. Some experts reckon it would make things worse not better by speeding up the flow of water and passing the problem on further down the line. The fact is that there is a s**t load of water that we can't get rid of because we've had unprecedented levels of rainfall.

You could say if you are worried about flooding then don't live below sea-level on reclaimed land next to a bloody big river and don't make a living as a farmer on wetlands that are prone to regular floods. Oh and as for criticising the decision to try and protect wildlife, I bet the locals were some of the strongest advocates of the designation of Sites of Special Scientific Research and Special Protection Areas.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who's houses and livelihoods have been ruined but I find that sympathy running out very quickly when they start blaming people for a sequence of weather events that are extraordinary.

You can also bet that when they try to re-route that train line away from Dawlish to an inland route the NIMBY's in the local area will tie the whole process up in planning delays/inquiries etc and it won't get done for another few decades or so.

Umm it's a complex situation but which ever way you look at it, it's now accepted that the EA should have kept up with the dredging of watercourses. They saved £1.7 million last year not doing the two main culprits here in Somerset (but their publicity budget was £2.4 million). Things went wrong when the EA was formed out of the old drainage boards and other organisations that had a focus.

...... talking of cost I popped down the road and watched these bad-boys pumping the Somerset Levels this morning, a mighty impressive piece of emergency engineering! presumably at a high cost but nothing like the cost to those poor sods who have been swamped for two months.

Glad I SORN'ed the Zed now or I might of had to ford it through deep water, and we know what trouble that topic can cause! :wink: