General Chat

Nobody has said much but is anybody on here affected?

Could be they are too busy to tell us.

all ok in Essex so far. :-)

Not directly but we have problems locally, including a rain-induced landslide which has closed a fairly major road (took me an hour to get to Bath this morning, normally takes 20 mins). We are quite a way from all the misery on the Levels, but it is on our local news.

think we're quite fortunate here in Cardiff

We can't get out the end of our road so we have to go round the other way.

I am on a higher bit here so I don't care!

It's a bit hairy down the harbour (the posh bit)when the wind gets behind a big tide.

OK in this part of Kent, although the ground is saturated and fields west of here have alot of water that has collected in places, but not totally flooded.
No rivers near me, so unless the tide comes this far inland, - unlikely, we should be OK.

Gwyn

A bit like Sheila, not directly affected but some roads flooded, fields under water, lots of warnings in place in surrounding areas. river Severn is high and expected to cause problems over the weekend. So pleased we didn't buy a house near the river.

Feel so sorry for those people in Somerset and in some of Gloucester which are flooded.

could I say that if there is anyone on Genes who has been flooded out and needs somewhere to live, I have plenty of room and would welcome anyone

Not seen anything much in this part of North Wales.
Had showers and sunshine.Had warnings yesterday and was a bit hesitant about going down the Conwy valley to Betws y Coed last night to our band venue with 2 men and a lady.I pick them up and drop them off and come back on myself,doing a 60mile round trip....so get home at midnight....but it was as calm as anything and the estuary looked like a mill pond .
Hope we don't get our share this weekend..
Feel sorry for all the poor people who have been affected and the devastation in the South. <3

We're still amazed that we don't have any flooding caused by run-off. The road to the village runs along a valley bottom with fields on one side and housing and a couple of schools + playing fields on the other. Presumable the water is still able to permeate through the chalk.

In the other direction on a gentle incline from the top of a hill, the duck pond does over flow but drains off the road fairly quickly and there are sheets of water, when its raining, from off the fields.

The only thing we have to worry about is trying to remember which puddles are puddles, and which are water filled pot holes! :-)

I'm personally lucky. I may be 3 steps down from the road, but there are 3 steps up to the house, and as I'm on a hill (ground slopes away on all sides of the house - I'm 6 ft higher than next door, and we're a terraced row!) Great fun when it's icy :-| :-|

However, as the centre Winchester is in a valley and one long flow of underwater springs, there are a couple of flooded areas in town, but the drains were miraculously cleared for the first time in years, about a month ago (otherwise the centre floods).
But the river Itchen has well and truly burst it's banks, the water meadows are under water (as they should be) and in town quite a few gardens that back on to the river are flooded.

The centre of Romsey is flooded, and a couple of major roads leading to it are closed due to flooding.
Quite a few villages around about are also flooded, as are some New Forest villages.

The town here on the Surrey / Hampshire border is surrounded by water meadows which flood whenever we have heavy rain. These serve to protect the town centre since it was flooded in the late 1960s. These have been flooded now since before Christmas although the level has gone up and down. Some new houses have been built right on the edge if the meadows and fortunately so far have stayed safe and dry. It is a hilly little town and we are up a hill on the outskirts of town with fields behind us, then open countryside for miles.

Several of the roads around us have been flooded recently, one looked like several tipper trucks had unloaded lorries full of shingle along a 300 foot stretch of it, where the stones had washed off the fields. They needed bulldozers to shift it..

We also had a mini tornado a couple of weeks ago which did a bit of local damage and brought down many trees and fences not previously downed by the bad weather.

At the house in Somerset we are only five minutes from the sea but again up a hill, we also have water meadows round the town there, which have been flooded for weeks.

We drove through the Somerset Levels on Tuesday, a very sad sight.

Blowing a gale again here now and hailing, just as Himself has decided to take the aerial off the chimney as it is shaking about so much and making an awful noise in the wind and we have people staying tonight.

M.

'Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink'.

('The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - a Devon Poet).

Down the road apiece from the Somerset Levels, not alone are we deluged by water but now there is an awful overflow of minor Royalty & panicky politicians being driven around on the backs of tractors, gawking/rubbernecking at the dejected residents who are trying to survive in their wet lands & moat houses.

It smells - and I'm not referring entirely to the putrid stagnant water.

One thing that's been puzzling about how the marooned Somerset Levels residents are coping - if the sewage is backed up in to their areas, what's happening to their own bodily waste??

On a visit yesterday to the Somerset Levels, the prime minister suggested that cut backs in river dredging under the last Labour government made the area more liable to flooding - more or less saying the conservatives were not to blame.

he was quick to shift the blame for the floods on the Somerset Levels on to the Environment Agency and Labour, however he failed to mention that he was warned, in a letter from the leader of a farmer's organisation in August last year, of the danger of the Somerset Levels flooding and the need for urgent action to be taken. The government rejected the request in the letter for funding for dredging. It was only after the devastation caused by the recent storms, that earlier this week, the Prime Minister authorised additional funding to enable dredging to begin

Before the Prime Minister attempted to wash his hands of any blame he would have done well to remember that it was a previous conservative prime minister - John Major, who was in office at the time the Environment Agency came into being, it was created by the Environment Act 1995 and came into existence on 1 April 1996.

Since 1996 as a result of decisions taken by the Environment Agency in conjunction with, governments of all persuasion since then, there has not been a national dredging policy, one of the reasons funding for dredging was reduced was because of changes in waste management legislation making the cost of disposing of dredged material more expensive.

Governments of all political persuasions may have saved a few million pounds by cutting back on dredging, and we know who has made the biggest cuts to services in recent years, any savings made by the cuts, will be dwarfed by the hundreds of millions of pounds now being spent, to sort out the devastation caused by the recent storms and floods, albeit dredging is not the be-all and end-all to solving the problem.

AnnC...what a lovely thing to say:)

We are'nt flooded out yet but its very close and we are getting ready to move the car. We had a warning on Wednesday (via email, phone and text) but it was ok then...ooo err.
Brick built house opposite has been flooded in the past few days for the 2nd time since New yr...their bedroom is on ground floor. Their garden has disapreared, so has their neighbours garden. The Boat club opposite is flooded too.
We are on the banks of the River Wye!!

Will try to add some pics on my blog. Not looked on the blog in yonks.

Ann...don't panic, we can stay with my sister if we do get flooded. l have a suitcase almost packed in bedroom...lol

jude

PS....The Prime minister is a pillock!!

edited

How Kind, Ann - but Cardiff is a bit of a way.

Am watching our neighbouring water meadows carefully. Drainage
was put is some years ago after a lot of flooding but you wouldn't know it now. Went and had a look yesterday but had to carefully wash my boots afterwards as the dog owners don't want to get wet!!! If it floods into houses it won't be the sewers causing the main problem :-| :-|

We were going to look at our two 'streams' and the Thames today but we got hit by a massive rainfall and rushed home to dry out. We've had lovely sun since (typical) but it looks as though it is clouding over again and I can hear the wind.

My heart goes out to those under water.

AnnCardiff - what a lovely kind gesture to make <3

I don't know where the stuff brought out of the ditches went on the back of the River Board tractor but I would have thought it could have been used on the land.

I think that, since the inception of capitalism in this country at the beginning of the nineteenth century we have lost touch with the way the land works.

About time the poiticians looked after this country instead of sending money abroad. We don't seem to count for much anymore. My heart goes out to anyone who is having to deal with all this flooding.

I quite agree with Jude regarding PM.