General Chat

I hope all of you have not suffered from all this flooding that's happening?

Not here, Caroline.

As I wrote on another thread, we have sailors' weather .... 'Bright and breezy, free and easy ...' :-D <3

Hung washing out yesterday and it dried!

We are lucky compared to some places, I think. Some people will have almighty messes to clean up - not an easy time for them. :-(

Government Ministers are falling over themselves today with promises of untold loads of money to prevent further devastation. The amounts being banded about could fill a good few sandbags.

King Canute did his best in his time, with similar success, to turn back the sea tides.

Glad to hear that Joy.

I can't begin to imagine what some are going through, as I've only ever suffered a small flood in the basement not the main living area.

Have to say up here I am very lucky as no flooding and no river close by. ant imagine what it must be like to lose everything. My heart goes out to all affected.

Have to say though, they should be dredging the rivers like they use to as im sure this is part of the problem. So the money should be spent doing this to prevent flooding again.

Florence in the hebrides

That has to be part of the solution at least doesn't it Florence.

That is a good point and I wonder if it was to save money that they don’t dredge anymore. If so then it has backfired on them.

A few years ago, I think near Pickering in Yorkshire, after severe flooding, they went upstream and partially blocked off the exit from the lake at the top and diverted the stream to where it had been originally.

Since then, I think, they haven't suffered any severe damage from flooding. Where possible others should copy their example.

Also developers should stop building new houses on flood plains, just because the land is cheap!!

Local authorities should never allow it, Andysmum. I'm sure they did not do it in days gone by.

I blame the councillors who sometimes exert pressure on planning and building staff to grant permission .... I often ask myself why!

In addition, developers seem to appeal more now than they did years ago.

Oh yes flood plain building never a good idea

A lot can be done in new developments to reduce the risk of flooding downstream by surface water being fed into soakaways or catchponds so that it enters the watercourse over several days instead of virtually instantly.

And surface water should not go into the foul sewer system since that overloads the sewage works to the extent that they have to release the overflow of raw sewage into a river or the sea.

It also helps if people don't cut down trees (HS2) and stop paving over gardens so that water runs off onto roads etc.

That said we've had an incredible amount of rain this year so the ground was pretty saturated. I feel so sorry for people who have been affected - it's horrible for them <3 <3

Agreed just due to the sheer amount of rain there would have been issues in some places, but concrete everywhere doesn't help for sure. As Brian said making soakaways etc can help, we have areas where new sites have been built but they build around a nature area where there's almost like a marsh.

The river's overflowed a bit in Winchester, but that's in a basin.
I live on top of a hill - but then, I'm 4 steps down from the road, 3 steps up to the house :-S
The gutter water goes into a drain - but that's it. It then soaks into the chalk.
The drain is overflowing, showing just how waterlogged the chalk is.
I also tend to get a couple of inches of rain by the front doorstep, but as the flagstones are loose, it soon dissipates :-D

I understand many have mudbaths not gardens right now!

We got off lightly here. My river didn't (well, so far) rise more than about 5 feet, and needed another three to get in the garden. Then another about eight to affect the house. We have been ready with our defences, air brick covers, metal plate for the door, and keeping our fingers crossed.

Fortunately we are well above the nearest river.
But our back lawn IS a mud bath.
It got churned up when sodden before Christmas by two puppies racing round it.
With the rain over the last two weekends there were actually puddles on it.
I managed to trip over onto it befire teatime today and got well plastered.

I was wondering if you might have had another 'high tide' Bob. Fingers crossed!

There's a few 'lakes' and breached banks round our way with impassable roads. I haven't heard of any homes or businesses affected though. We're on higher ground but still have double height kerbs and steps up to house!

Another issue with all the rain...stinky wet dogs :-D

Our dog doesn't have to be wet to be stinky Caroline :-0 :-D