General Chat

I drove in to Stratford-upon-Avon this morning, the fields to the north of the road to Tiddington were flooded as far as the eye could see. The caravan site on the bank of the river Avon, a bit further along, looked about two feet deep.

Thank goodness not affected by flooding as no rivers or canals in the close vicinity

Feel though for folks who have been affected because they have no control over the weather and the excessive rain

Must be horrendous seeing the water just rising and know you just can’t stop it and your home is at risk of damage

Island...very true with mine as well :-D

I would guess most people can't just move to another floor, so not really a solution. I do have a basement and only store things there in waterproof boxes just in case.

You can't sell your house once it floods, well not for a good price. Insurance may not cover you in the future.

Question I'd want answering is where's Johnson and Cobra?

Now if it was London................. :-S

Homes that have been flooded are just not selling so there is zero chance of those unfortunate owners 'moving on'.

No councils have sufficient funds available for flood defences at all of the vulnerable areas. Even when they (or the EA) have installed defences some are inadequate and others have been STOLEN.

National bulders have been criticised for their proposed site decisions but ultimately it's the planners that should bear the responsibility for increasing flood risks.

I feel desperately sad for young couples who purchased their first house, suffered a flood and now face the economical cost of replacing their possessions together with the stress knowing they own a worthless property.

You take a risk. I would, to live in what for 9 years out of ten (worse odds in the future) is a nice spot by a lovely river.

Ironbridge which is fairly near me is in trouble, the flood barriers have held mainly, but the power of the river has broken under the road so those businesses etc on that road are very much at risk.

Where I used to live, 6.8 million spent but will come to nothing ( back to seamarsh) in the end.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/18/this-is-a-wake-up-call-the-villagers-who-could-be-britains-first-climate-refugees

edit that may sound as if I am underplaying or unsympathetic to the devastation that losing your possessions causes, I don't mean to do that. Just that as it has been obvious for years that there will be floods in a lot of places, you have to consider that it may or will happen to you.

After the flood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9-QKzRF-x4

A few years ago our GF & basement were wrecked thanks to a burst water main
As a result we moved the living quarters to the 1st & 2nd floors and installed internal flood protection. When it happened again the damage was nothing like as bad.

I saw on "Grand Designs" a house fairly near to Monkey's Island on the Thames. The design had the build resting on a floating base which was ok for up to 4m of water rise. Cost sheds of money though.

People cannot reasonably expect the whole country to bail them out , create expensive "flood protections". They should have insurance. If the insurers won't play ball then pretty obviously the property owners need to consider their options such as a radical redesign of the ground floor or moving on.

There is nothing new in building on flood plains it has been going on for centuries. What is new is the frequency and ferocity of the flooding. There are many positive ways with water and land management to reduce the impact of heavy rain. Instead most of the money seems to be spent on fixes which assuage people's fear but just make things worse in the long run.

Our house is at 900ft above sea level so although some wag was jet skiing in our lower village we were only affected by water ingress through the roof. That was annoying enough, I cannot imagine the distress of having your home flooding.

There isn't a single solution as in order to protect one village you put another at risk along the same water course. I cannot see any joined up thinking yet...

We can only hope that the weather improves and people can start rebuilding their lives.

No rivers near me.
The issue locally is our proximity to the coast and consequently concern over high tides. Contractors are constantly moving shingle from the eastern end of the coast and dumping it back at the western end. Apparently the sea recently undid all their work and threw much of the shingle onto the promenade, exposing a much sandier beach.

A lot of our coastal area is classed as Flood Plain.
A few years back, a family we know wanted to build a conservatory on the back of their house, but were refused permission because "You are in a flood plain".
Strangely, contractors were able to build a new estate on adjoining land :-0

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

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

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!

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.

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.

I understand many have mudbaths not gardens right now!

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

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.

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

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.

Oh yes flood plain building never a good idea