Flooding

@billy when I posted about the potential impact of developments on the prior Kewick flooding thread I was ridiculed by the usual suspects. Down Soith we have numerous examples of resdiential development which have lead to flooding issues.

Best of luck to those affected

Their strongest argument was to provide housing. I live the other side of the hill and there’s so many houses for sale in this village. Rush hour where they will eventually build, probably after a pause in order to secure extra funding, is ridiculous as it is. None of the housing will be anywhere near entry level because of the costs.

Not one aspect of it makes sense. It starts when some powerful developer puts an idea forward, makes some influential friends and gains that much funding it becomes unstoppable no matter how many thousands of proles object.

Just been down to Saltaire and bottom of Baildon with my son. The water has already dropped about 1.5m from high point 😯

Lots of business’s completely flooded, one big retailer has apparently had a wall ripped down and now all stock gone down to Leeds 🙁

In work trying to sort out the electricity system.

The contingencies are doing ok so far – fair number still off, but most back on.

Working on the rest and keeping an eye on York now.

Managed to drive in to Tod from the burnley side without any issues, gravel and mud all over the roads but otherwise it’s fine. All family present and correct, damage to property is minimal, we’ve got off well considering what others have had to deal with, thanks for all the help, much appreciated.

Good news

Just come back from a road ride around Rufford and Croston. Croston is under 3ft of water again !!

They have only just finished the £4Million flood defences there, and they obviously were not enough. I feel so sorry for the folk, Christmas tress in the street and mopping up all over the village.

Rufford is the same, the river Douglas has burst it’s banks

Untitled by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

I’m in West Lancs,I went out on the Cheshire Lines earlier today.
This is AFTER the floods receded.
I remember when this was all fields..

Nice day for a paddle..

Spent the last 7 hours helping dig out Blazing Saddles in Hebden with Brant, Ed, Hannah and many many other cyclists from the local area who’s names I don’t even know.

Support your local shops – bikes or whatever – they are going to need you more than ever or you won’t have them any more.

Before and after York centre. Been told to work from home next week.

Gregmay, came home to find myself awash, not much really just water off the hillside, so spent the afternoon sorting myself out. when I drove Heb, it looked like a watery bomb had gone off.

I’ll get down tomorrow and lend a hand

Sorry in advance.

Can someone explain where the water goes. Is it supposed to just flow to the sea or soak into the ground

Thank you.

Mostly downstream.

A59 Whalley Arches

from my faceybook feed

This is why you dont build on flood plains

Had a trundle out and about today.
Irwell Vale is devastated, everyones possessions piled on the gardens and some seriously glum faces, didnt take any pics as it felt too voyeuristic. Gutted for everyone down there.

Things were as bad in Strongstry and the bridge is down – see how long this takes to be replaced (if ever?)
[/url]

Ramsbottom is looking okay and the main bridge survived and is open. Nuttall Park is a mess – and the Cormar ‘tunnel’ route is interesting at the moment!

I bet the Waterside wishes it was this popular when it was open! – packed with people having a nosey.
[/url]

The power of water – this is a fair sized lump of stone from presumably the Waterside a fair distance downstream.
[/url]

I’m a bit confused by conflicting reports saying it’s both unprecedented and the worst in 70 years. Can’t be both.

Having worked in I surance claims, I know how awful it is for both home owners and businesses. Dirty, horrible stinking mess left behind that ruins peoples lives for months.

Currently trying to persuade MrsMC to divert holiday plans from France to somewhere here that needs our money more.

I’m surprised nobody has blamed gay marriage yet…

On a more serious note, Mr Mule Senior was (now retired) an architect, and sat on the planning advisory panel for the local council for several years until he got fed up with spending pretty much every meeting saying “Why in the name of **** do you persist in building on floodplains you bungle****s”

(I may have paraphrased… but not by much)

Nickc – Water/mud bomb is very much a good way to describe Hebden. And now it’s raining again. Awesome.

Lots of folk out helping in Hebden today but the place is devastated. Quite a few businesses won’t be reopening at all I don’t think. Very sad.

Gonna go back out tomorrow and see what we can do.

that’s properly shit, I’ll be down tomorrow to help out where I can

Project, thanks for the info, I’ll pass that on to her, it might be that the YH in Coniston* will get in touch with her anyway, but too much info is better than not enough when it’s a seven hour journey involved.
*She’s just got a new job as relief manager, having been staff at the YH in Conwy for the last couple of years, so not wanting to get off to a bad start by being late back, but current circumstances may dictate otherwise.

I’m a bit confused by conflicting reports saying it’s both unprecedented and the worst in 70 years. Can’t be both

Well, they’re relying on official weather records, which is Met Office, which only go back 70 years, and that’s also more-or-less living memory as well, so so both are largely correct; however, anyone prepared to go digging around in other archives can turn up plenty of written records that show this isn’t unprecedented, but there’s the added issue of a huge growth in infrastructure in places which have flooded as badly in the past, but there were no buildings, or very few, to suffer damage.
There have been significant floods down here, I’ve seen photos of Calne, eight miles away, with streets totally under water, but that hasn’t happened for many years, the same with Chippenham, although it did come very close a couple of years ago, the Avon was very close to overtopping it’s banks in town. Major restructuring of the rivers in both towns back in the 60’s made quite a difference.

Grum + Nickc – I’ll be down again tomorrow, happy to feed you lot curry after if you’re coming past. I’ll also be getting out for a brief ride as I need to get my head round all this and see how flipped the trails are.

This is a terrible situation.
I’m from Mytholmroyd and still have family there so dropped down today to help out.
Russell Dean’s furniture store looks like a riot has taken place inside, with the front windows blown out.
On the other side, the rear wall of whitesans travel has washed into the river.
My niece lives up Craig road and had water up to he mantel piece and my dad’s mill in Mytholmroyd was under around 6 foot of water. I went in with him today to try and pre-empt what the Insurane assessor may say tomorrow but on the assumption that electronic weaving machines were fully submerged for around 12 hours, looks like a write off.
Gutted.

Just heard that the 200 year old bridge to st Stephens church in Copley has gone.

Flip.

Be intresting to see where all the tradesmen come from to repair all the damage and whos going to pay us, seems as if many where not insured, and if they where insurance companies will most probably squirm out of paying to much out.

Ffs, this is what insurance is for. I led our in house response team at the Perth floods in the 90s we literally went up with cheque books and wrote cheques on the spot for people based on what we could see they needed in the short term.

If people aren’t insured, that is a separate issue.

Talked to two shop owners in Hebden who were not insured. They could not get insurance again after the floods in 2012. Home owner living beside my friend has a £10,000 excess on their property, again, from floods in 2012.

If people aren’tCANT AFFORD TO BE insured, that is a separate issue.

Lots happened since the 1990,s to make insurance un affordable or not available

Premiums and excesses reflect the risk you present sadly. Shopping around specialist underwriters might help, but ultimately, that’s how it works.

Big problem is that post war work reduced recent incidents of flooding in places where it is now happening again, and people have been badly stung buying houses in places that hadn’t flooded for years.

Not trying to diminish the horror of it or the financial implications. But the house I was brought up in had a permanent tide mark from the 1953 floods, friends had grandparents in Yalding who lived up stairs in the winter, Matlock has flood markers on one of the bridges from floods that were several feet deep and easily within living memory.

It has sadly always happened and always will.

flood

thanks for the responce More cash, any idea over whats like to happen to thgose in york who where deliberately flooded by the EA after flood gates where opened.

What Philip Walling fails to mention is a lot of farmers have also benefited from the European Water Framework Directive in that they get new cattle drinkers, fencing and bank repairs. And the Environment Agency still do dredging just not on the scale of it did 25 years ago and the conservationist put a halt on a lot of dredging and bushing works. And also not all of the dredging has to be carted away some of it is placed to help build up banks and low spots.

Presumably the EA have tough choices to make sometimes? Not my area of expertise but I seem to recall that the last time the Derwent flooded through Matlock, Belper and Derby 5-6 years ago it was because they had had to release the waters at the Derwent reservoirs as they were dangerously high.

Dredging is an interesting point in that article. There are arguments for and against, but I know that where we lived on the edge of the Fens the river that left the tidemark in 53 was fine when it was dreged when I was a kid, but after they stopped dredging it peaked higher and higher, causing my parents to move, and within a couple of years of them moving they had the first flood alert for 30 years. Dredging may or may not have been a factor.

They used to pile the dredged material to build up flood banks iirc

I’m fairly sure tod used to flood more than hebden when I was a kid and remember at least twice as a kid wading through the town in my wellies.

I can only assume that some of the work reduce tod flooding has passed the water further down the valley as hebden always seems worse these days.

Sea levels are rising. Should we dredge the sea?

If It helps anyone out, At work we have 4 x 100mtr rolls of lay flat blue water hose. We also have a box of joiners and the jubilee clips to with them.
We paid around £500 for these and never used them.
I am pretty sure I can sell thm to anyone who needs them for alot less than that . You will need to source a pump of some sort , but 400m of pipe will move water well away from any flooded cellars etc.
As its Xmas / Bank holidy shipping will be a problem but I can prob get them away Tuesday on an overnight.
If I said all 4 rolls for 1/2 price £250 = £62.50 a roll, delivered, thats cheaper than fleabay.
Pm me if your desperate and include a phone no. and I will see what I can do . Can probably sell each roll individualy if that helps anyone out.
Not trying to profit from anyones misfortune , we have them , people need them . I will be fired if I agree to give them away , and am taking some risk in selling them for half what we paid without a nod from a director. But if they kick off I can cover the diffrence.

Glad to live down south , but have had the sea lapping at my front door and the wheely bins swimming laps of the car park so have had flooding experience

Has more monbiot not been predicting this for years?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes

flooding

The only way one of our relatives could get insurance was to pay an extra 8 or 10 grand when they did repairs after floods in ’08 or ’09.
House is basically waterproofed and tiled up to 4 foot from the floor. Only electric cable less than 5 foot from the floor is the main supply and consumer unit (that is actually semi-sealed), the replacement ring main is now in the ceiling with spurs coming down to the high level sockets.
Sump and pump under the stairs, massive auxiliary pump ready to go in the garage.
Metre high flood wall in the middle of the garden. Wall at the river bank is now nearly a metre thick and a 30-40 cm higher than it used to be, and they have a flood barrier to the road (water comes in both ways, river and road).

Benefits include that the last three or four floods have needed no more than a couple of hours with a hose, mop and bucket and some help from the neighbours to get the furniture back down stairs.
That includes 50 cm of water sloshing round the house last winter. They were only out of the house for one night.

Insurance is now affordable. But only covers the structure…….. (this is not far from Harrogate)