Are you affected by the floods?

So far, we haven’t been – had to choose routes to my parents carefully yesterday – but just found out the Cardiff – London trains aren’t running. This means I can WFH again 🙂

Any disruption for anyone else on here?

I can’t get back home from Plymouth to Bath via the trains. Something to do with the train line hanging in mid-air in Dawlish. Maybe if the train was to go fast enough…

I have a few pupils whose homes or relatives homes are under water at the moment 🙁

Not any more. Last few years we would be stuck in our village as all ways out would flood up to car killing height and our neighbours house would fill up through the floor due to the ground water level rising.

Now we live about 200m above sea level so if we end up flooding the whole of the SW will be gone!

danielgroves, you need:

My communal garden and tennis court are currently underwater. A lot of local roads are also affected making commuting and riding tricky in south Oxfordshire

I trod in a puddle walking to work the other day…

Couldn’t cross the Severn at Upton this morning so took the train into London from malvern instead. We were one of the last to make it past the flooding at Oxford. I didn’t risk the train home so my Bro gave me a lift home from Heathrow. Am now sitting in a Starbucks near Tewkesbury waiting for Mrs Stoner to come and pick me up. Can’t wait in Tewkesbury as can’t get into town from this side.

Upton defences holding up well. 4.4m well spent imo. Been in use for over 60days since being built 2 years ago I reckon.

Trains are not running tonight, I can’t imagine they running tomorrow morning tbh.

I had to go from reading to Exeter today. Took 6 hours on the train with coach. I’m cream crackered. The Thames isn’t even at its highest yet!

danielgroves, you need:

Anyone fancy volunteering?

Nope I live in the North so had a low rainfall.

Just checked the latest trains and the one I would have been on is currently 2.5hrs late having only got a third of the way along a 2hr journey. I owe my Bro a couple of pints I think. Could have been a very late evening otherwise.

Only to the extent that it seems to be occupying most of the news, otherwise I’ve been unscathed…

Apart from the rain washing everything loose down the hill, and the Peak being a mud bath, nothing at home.
The road into the office has been submerged for months but it’s remained passable.
Now on a train heading to that London, may pop down to the Thames for a peek.

meh – floods.

we had an earthquake here today.

There was a piece on the news today and the water on the road in the village was ankle deep but only in the middle. I felt it was lazy reporting. The farmers will be losing bigtime 🙁

Yep, just some water in the shed and about 8 in to wade through to reach communal entrance. It’s about 2ft up from there to the ground floor though, and another 30ft to my flat so I am confident we’ll be ok. More worried about others in Salisbury. Not a good time to live in a city with 5 rivers…

Nearly drowned my mates dog a couple of weeks back. Apart from that, been reet.

We had a small puddle in the conservatory the other day, very worrying.

Mrs TR running down the stairs?

T’ moor’s are reet boggy at the minute, who do I complain to?

bruneep – you say that but we all know shes got you beat on the bike ;)(and possibly me …….)

tbh i slept right through it – im on nights . was magnitude 4.8 i believe – was in a 5.5 last year in turkmenistan , its just like being on a giant washing machine.

STW

Not affected by the floods as yet although we have had 6 automated flood warnings over the phone including one proper “threat to life” one which we got at 1:15 on Sunday morning. Just to be on the safe side I got out of bed, got dressed and walked down to the river to have a quick look at what was going on. It was at least a foot lower than the highest I’ve seen it which resulted in no flooding. It was the same height after breakfast several hours later.

Now I’m grateful for the advanced warning but there comes a point where you get so many false alerts that you start to ignore the warnings.

I have two main alternative routes if I cycle commute, one on-road and one off-road. Today if I had taken the on-road route it would have involved two longish stretches of road under about 18ins of water; if I had taken the off-road route I would have been riding through about 5ft of water! I drove via an extended high level route adding several miles to the distance instead. River Wye between Monmouth and Ross as high as I can remember ever seeing.

nah, rain’s been it’s usual consistent self up here! very mild winter all in this year, don’t even think I’ve seen afrost all winter! In Glasgow.

Just out of curiosity..

What happens to all the water when it reaches London? Is the Thames through there deep and wide enough to handle whatever is arriving without any risk to person or property?

What happens to all the water when it reaches London? Is the Thames through there deep and wide enough to handle whatever is arriving without any risk to person or property?

Nothing’s been mentioned about that I notice 🙁
The Thames barrier’s in place to stop the sea coming in, so we can’t necessarily open it to let water out that’s come down from upstream…

Hopefully though it will lead to all the foreign investment money that’s driving up house prices, leaving, so at least we can afford to buy somewhere to live, so long as it’s not a basement flat!

its Ok the Thames has another barrier

My commute north in Bristol is disrupted a bit, but Wells is just up on the foot of The Mendip so fine. The B road from Street to Taunton is a goner tho. Did you see those pics of burrow-bridge? The barrow mump is an island again!

Hear from the sister in law in Egham that the water is not far from her house. FIL and MIL also in Egham but further from the Thames and slightly higher up.

Scotroutes – The Thames through London isnt big enough. The flooding within the floodplain upstream is protecting London to some degree though storing huge volumes of floodwater and releasing it over a longer period. The volume under a hydrograph remains the same, but the impact of the floodplain flattens and lengthens the hydrograph so it has a lower peak flow. The only fly in the ointment is further rainfall, as this will result in the active floodplain extending further downstream and towards London.

As stupid as it sounds, closing the barrier could result in greater floodwater storage by stopping the incoming tide extending upto Teddington weir.

Thanks for all that. I’m sure the folk upstream of London are chuffed.

The rivers here are turgid monsters at the moment. Getting to the bothy over the weekend was an adventure in itself. However I have not heard of any people flooded out in Carmarthenshire. Yet.

The Thames barrier’s in place to stop the sea coming in, so we can’t necessarily open it to let water out that’s come down from upstream…

Here’s how I understand it, but I could be wrong:

The Thames channel in London is big enough to hold the normal downstream water and the incoming tide, so the level of the embankments is more or less the same as that of the sea at high tide. However it’s much higher than the sea level at low tide. So if you close the barrier for a bit at high tide the river will fill somewhat, but when the tide drops you regain enough gradient to continue draining the upstream water.

I’m just trying to justify not going to London today. I think that’s reasonable given I have no meetings or anything special going on.

severn/avon are affecting my commute, some of the main tewkesbury roads are closed

relatives are near the wye which is fairly high although hasn’t stopped them getting in and out yet

homewise we’re well above river level so it’ll just be a case of picking and choosing travel routes.

I’m pretty sure the Thames Barrier is open 99.9% of the time and its just to stop tidal surges flooding London.

Yes, but I think they could use it to help drain the flood plain possibly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03twb1j/Look_North_(Yorkshire)_10_02_2014/

watch from 6mins in, made me smile 😕