General / Off-Topic Flooding...

My town is flooding. :(

I live in Surrey approx 450m from the Thames, I have never seen it like this.

There are around 300 army personnel in town helping out with sandbags and evacuations.

Anyone else in the same situation?
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
No just the wind around here, Hope it doesn't get too bad and please stay safe.
 
No, but I hope the water doesn't reach you.

I've been travelling to Exeter and Bristol on the train lately, and have seen lots of flooding. In Exmouth the seaweed was washed up onto the roads.

I feel really sorry for the people caught up in it, there doesn't seem to be anything they can do about it.
 
Moved to a Desert Planet to avoid just this thing. Only Sandworms and the occasional Fremen raid bother me now.

Swings and Roundabouts.
 
If you have an upper-floor, move valuable stuff up there... good luck.


yep, have already moved some stuff.

apparently the army are installing a giant 'water sausage' in the road next to mine overnight to try to divert the water.

will go and take a look in the morning assuming I can get there.

I really feel for some of the people nearer the river, im going to go down tomorrow and offer to help once I've blocked the holes.
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Spoke to my family in Bristol yesterday. I was told that the Somerset levels (read flood plains) are under 3 meters of water. Even knowing the area and having seen some of the flooding last summer it is difficult to imagine.

Holland isn't having that many problems from all the storms, some high winds but thats about it. We are having frequent earthquakes in the north, caused by the gas extraction. Since 1 jan there have been 11. Thats 2 per week!

Kind of waiting for one to screw up the dykes and let the sea in.....
 
No, I'm not affected by the floods but in my country, there are a few days, to the north west (in "Bretagne", in front of the UK, as you know) the cities were engulfed by the waters, like in your country
 
My town is flooding. :(

I live in Surrey approx 450m from the Thames, I have never seen it like this.

There are around 300 army personnel in town helping out with sandbags and evacuations.

Anyone else in the same situation?

Good luck dude - I'm in Surrey too but in a relatively high bit and not too close to the Thames.

Some guy on the telly this morning was using submersible pumps under his floorboards to keep the inside of the house dry - was working too.
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
I heard a National Public Radio report on the flooding today and was surprised at how bad it sounded for a lot of folks. My thoughts are definitely with all those affected. Hope the weather lets up soon!

Here, we're in a big drought right now! Normally we get a fair amount of rain in Janurary/February, but this year it's been practically bone dry.
 
I heard this kind of crazy weather was expected from climate change. There is also a snow storm in the US. Not sure if it can be directly attributed. Here it's just normal although the winter was a bit unusual long and snowy.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
I heard this kind of crazy weather was expected from climate change. There is also a snow storm in the US. Not sure if it can be directly attributed. Here it's just normal although the winter was a bit unusual long and snowy.

Not exactly, as climate and weather are different beasts. This cartoon may make you think about it:

http://xkcd.com/1321/

WCY
 
Not exactly, as climate and weather are different beasts. This cartoon may make you think about it:

Yes I mean more extreme weather events due to climate change. I'm not sure whether a change in climate like a wavering gulf stream causes "more chaos" in the system or what, since we already have seasons that create pretty high change every year. But AFAIK erratic weather outside the statistical trends is one of the main concerns to food safety.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
Other likely effects of the warming include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts and heavy rainfall; ocean acidification; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes.

PS: Lol ironically when looking at the graph at the wiki page, the best thing to do would be to cause a big long recession :p
 
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yesterday was a crazy day.

the local smaller river went into overdrive, flooding many properties, two of my friends are already flooded.

The Thames has gone down over 10 cm now, although they are expecting a surge during this weekend, have packed bags for my wife and daughter and if I see it coming, they are gone.

the local community have really come together, all the local business offering help, local people helping each other out with evac's etc, it's amazing to see.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
Yes I mean more extreme weather events due to climate change. I'm not sure whether a change in climate like a wavering gulf stream causes "more chaos" in the system or what, since we already have seasons that create pretty high change every year. But AFAIK erratic weather outside the statistical trends is one of the main concerns to food safety.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming


PS: Lol ironically when looking at the graph at the wiki page, the best thing to do would be to cause a big long recession :p

Sorry, I wasn't very lucid. I meant that it would be a bold climate person who said the floods were a direct result of climate change, but that the overall weather change-trend is an indicator of it. As a species we struggle with much outside a "village" mentality, because over countless generations that's been how we have dealt with risks. It's the same with climate change, we see weather and our brains interpret that as being "the world" when it's not.

My main gripe with the flooding has been the general "those in power" attitude that when it was "just" Somerset it was relegated to a low-down news item (less important than the tube strike, as it happens), and Eric Pickles saying a few platitudes. The head of the Environment Agency only went there because he was left with little other option, oh it had a spot on Countryfile. As soon as the Thames Valley is affected then it's live headline coverage all the way, a PM and Opposition Leader out there saying "more must be done" and "money no object" and whatever. Why did we have to wait for Surrey to be flooded before that happened? I mean no ill-will to those in the Thames Valley, indeed anyone anywhere caught in this has my sympathies, and I hope it passes soon.

It's an observation on how skewed the whole media/government is here.

Picture 10 on this page is Worcester Cricket ground, quite close to us - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26170528

There's more to England than London, and there's more to the flooding than the Thames.
 
You'll like this news story @Yaffle.

http://newsthump.com/2014/02/10/flooding-now-important-as-river-into-london-seriously-affected/

Those in charge are actually partially to blame for the flooding. For years farmers have been paid to clear trees and hedges from their land in the hills. It's the only way to get a full subsidy. Can't really blame the farmers for doing so.

Unfortunately it has an effect of increasing run off, as trees and hedgerows do a massive job of holding onto water and getting it into the ground.

That means more rain in rivers, and no matter how much you dredge them they won't ever hold the amount of water we're talking about recently. You can't dredge them to a size that will hold all that water. We need less run off not bigger rivers.

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-to-stop-flooding-soil-water-farming-dredging

Makes sense to my mind how that's a contributory factor.

I just hope we can get people effected dry as soon as possible.
 
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