Flooding

Mcmoonter – Loch Insh has been up at Ruthven since the start of the month. It’s never really subsidised so any rainfall has had nowhere to go.

Planning a trip up the Feshie tomorrow. I expect more of the bank to have been washed away just South of Feshie Bridge

sparkyrhino » Been working to restore comms services in Leeds center today,what i found worse than the damage/devestation, was a facilaties manager I was speaking too, told me of 2 fake fire engines in the city with blues on,touting to pump out shops and basements for cash in hand,charging per gallon.he even managed to get pictures of the blokes and engines,which he swiftley reported to the authorities,who were aware of them

how do you suddenly happen to have 2 fire engines to hand?

Might explain why we’re always short

MERSEYSIDE FIRE have reduced their stock by a lot, and a recent fire at a warehouse saw 2 of their redundant ones sitting in a scrapyard while the existing ones tried to put out a huge fire.

Theres also a huge warehouse full of old fire engines on merseyside awaiting sale to private companies or export acording to a neighbour who has worjked in there

There are always 2 fake engines knocking around Leeds but they have the blue lights disabled they are party buses. Probably just been out and bought a couple of pumps as soon as they figured they could make a quick few quid

…touting to pump out shops and basements for cash in hand,charging per gallon

Nice. 🙄

‘We’ll help you put the bushfire out, Mrs Farmer. Let’s start at $50 per every 5ft we douse around your house?!’ A home has gotta be worth that, wouldn’t you say?’ (Rubs hands)

They defitnitley had blues on could see them in pictures,also a mate working down Kirkstall rd at the back of the Vue cinema, said he saw a scroat with a pump in a shopping trolley,asking if anyone wanted a pumping in a dark damp place.

Malvern rider That’s what real fire cover will be like in the future if the govt get their way

trail_rat – Member
Im not clicking it again, but
Monbiots a **** and thats shit lazy speculative journalism- the key phrAse is right in the middle
To paraphrase
“I have no idea if this is actually the cause but it sells good sensAtionalist copy”

Your post is shit, lazy and speculative. He’s been saying this exact stuff for months if not years in fact I saw him talking about it in Hebden in summer. If he claimed he could definitely prove a link you’d be slagging him off for making unprovable claims. I have a friend who works in this area and she reckons he’s generally fairly on the money.

Trail_rat – ever heard of libel? There’s a reason he wrote it like that.

Seems, like last week, that rivers are peaking at record highs. Royal Dee is currently half a metre above previous record, Dochart at Killin was 20cm above and so on.

apps.sepa.org.uk/waterlevels/default.aspx

Oh, and Rest and be thankful landslide, Glen Ogle landslide, Comrie landslide – I am sure more…

We drain moorlands and fields to get water away and down into the brooks and rivers. It persists down. Why are some people surprised with all the water?

rob2 – Member
Dredging is appropriate in some locations more so than others. It is just one of a number of tools. Won’t help much when you get shed loads of rain over and over again. The biggest issue is the EA senior management culture coupled with the fact it’s largely government funded. the only thing they manage worse is water resources.

Exactly my point. I also pointed out that for most of the watercourses currently affected in the North dredging likely wouldn’t be appropriate or even possible.
But it’s fine to ignore what I said to indulge in some personal point scoring. Dredging on the Somerset Levels works, and continues to work, and will do for the foreseeable future.
Current estimate indicate a rise between 1-4ft by 2100, by which time I’m sure significant developments in flood prevention will have taken place.

why do you think dredging on the Somerset levels has made any difference the vertical drop on the parrot is only 1′ a mile from langport to Bridgewater. Reducing the quick run off into the rivers would make more of a difference as stated by George Monbiot http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/29/deluge-farmers-flood-grouse-moor-drain-land

Pleased to report that the Dee levels have dropped considerably overnight. Looks like it’s back to normal-ish high river level (it’s still a bit dark so can’t really tell, didn’t fancy trudging down the access road unable to see what’s squishing under foot…). Big sigh of relief.

The local rag is reporting the road slip on the A93 as being at Micras which (according to the OS map) would put it just east of Crathie (so whoever pointed out on previous page should be right, detour via the South Deeside should work).

Good news metal heart.

Quite impressive images from all along the Dee last night.

Somerset is essentially reclaimed land so yes you would want to hold water upstream but once on the levels you want it out as fast as possible. Although the drop might be low the dredging give both more capacity and reduces the friction of the channels. It will no doubt start moving back to the catchment based planning of 1973 but with private funding this time. Dieter Helm published a similar paper on this a few months ago

The thing I’d like to know is what’s happened to all the shite that was washed down the river. There were hay bales, trees, bushes, the upper fishing hut here, log crates, hell even caravans. I was hearing limbs being torn off trees here all day as the water was rising. Where does it all end up?

On my side of the river it expanded to at least three times it’s normal width, the bow wave on the trees suddenly in its way was quite impressive.

It’s weird how fast it all happened too, at times you could see it inching ever nearer!

Where does it all end up?

That’s where a lot of the crap on the beaches comes from!

Where does it all end up?

Jammed against bridges, rocks, trees, fences. Some of it sinks. Some of it gets washed out to sea. Some gets broken up by the force of the water into tiny pieces that just looks like any other litter.

High water mark in the Lakes from the previous flooding was marked by all sorts of debris, a lot of it branches and grass but occasional dead sheep, lots of plastic waste and tonnes of gravel.

Floodwater is revolting stuff, contains all manner of pollution and debris. And those pictures of people going swimming in their own living room or sitting waist deep in a pub beer garden. Urgh.

The Ribble at Preston flooded on Saturday. On Sunday, I rode around the Guild Wheel which most of that section was underwater a few hours before.

The waste left behind was dirty smelly mud, tyres, oil drums, trees and basically anything that’s in fields.

A large section of the route was impassable as all the debris had got stuck against a fence and in that was all kinds of stuff and a couple of drowned sheep. People were letting their kids climb over it. Goodness knows what disease etc was in that lot.

When our friends in Guildford got flooded repeatedly a few years back their garden and house was full of human sewage. It was very difficukt even when cleaned out and dried to fell comfortable there. Remember David Walliams continued his Thames charity swim after heavy rain when advised not too and pi ked up a verymasty bug as a result from human waste flushed into the river. Thoughts with those affected, for some it could be a very long time before things are back to anything like normal

Relax, folks – sun is out in London again. No COBRA meetings needed.

Calderdale Locals:

Organic House are opening tomorrow from 12-3 to serve tea and coffee for £2 with a Cliff Bar for cyclists.

They are one of the few coffee shops who managed to not be totally destroyed as their kitchen is upstairs.

Aiming to take a meandering ride from the Shepherds Rest above Tod – leaving at 12 – over some trails that still exist to Hebden – pay £2 for a brew and bar – then ride back – then a half of something.

More than welcome to join me, all profits go to the Calderdale Flood Fund, you could even give more if you chose to.

I’ll be there from 11:45 dressed as me. Normal MNPR rules.

Bring a bike – take money for beer.

Where does it all end up?

This is one of the jobs EA op’s teams will be trying to clear from culverts, bridge holes and other blockages. And even more so when the water levels drop.

GregMay my relief efforts have been stymied by a rotten lurgy. Wouldn’t want to pass it on to anyone. Will be plenty still to do in the next few weeks I’m sure.

I’ll be there from 11:45 dressed as me. Normal MNPR rules.

I’m hoping to make it, but need to see how both my hangover and cold bug are doing. Currently fuelled on lemsips and caffiene just to get through today.

Noticaeble that there’s very little about the scottish floods on BBC News front page. A far away northern country….

gregmay, I’ll try to make it, dependent on hang over!! but I’ll def. go to the Organic House anyway, glad to hear they don’t have to take up the floor!!

By some miracle, looks like my mums old house in Ballater escaped. Street behind had 4 ft of water in the houses but neighbour said his, ours and another few in our street were fine, just.
Hoping to be able to get up at weekend to double check.
Not going to help getting it sold but could have been so much worse.

the north south divide 😯

The far north looks nae bad

Did a quick (moist) reccy for ride – its going to have a lot of mud/holes/grit on it.

I’m going to be on the chunky CX bike – TimK is bringing his SS – this we have another FrankenCX as well. So it’ll be a combo route. Aiming to be at Organic House for 1pm if anyone fancies coming via road bike.

We of course ignore you and throw stones at you. Splitters.

Metalheart there was an awful lot of wood, branches etc on Aberdeen beach a few days ago, so I suspect that’s where a fair bit ends up. Especially as the sea was pretty powerful at high tide.

That met office graphic is to the 29th, so doesn’t include some of Frank’s rain which fell on 30th

Noticaeble that there’s very little about the scottish floods on BBC News front page. A far away northern country….

Actually there was a whole piece on Balmoral and Prince Charles’s favourite bridge 8)

the north south divide

Looking at that map, am I correct in thinking the Peak has got off pretty lightly?

You need some of that to wash the shite off the Rushup descent…

metalheart – Member
The thing I’d like to know is what’s happened to all the shite that was washed down the river. There were hay bales, trees, bushes, the upper fishing hut here, log crates, hell even caravans. I was hearing limbs being torn off trees here all day as the water was rising. Where does it all end up?

As said, plenty gets washed out to sea, plenty more gets caught against any obstruction and stays there when the water drops, like weirs, fences, or just left in the middle of fields. Pulteney Weir in the centre of Bath regularly has large trees caught up after really heavy rain upstream, and one memorable occasion saw a dead cow floating against the side, all four legs pointing skywards; it was there for nearly a week, an additional tourist attraction…

gwaelod – Member

Noticaeble that there’s very little about the scottish floods on BBC News front page. A far away northern country….

I don’t know. I have been getting calls and texts from friends down South that saw the Peebles floods on BBC wondering if we were ok.

Peebles was on the front page this morning, footage from Scotland and N England is still on the news front page in two articles.

The flood defence money just went boom in lahndan town I hope you enjoyed it on TV 🙁

I’m hoping to make it, but need to see how both my hangover and cold bug are doing.

Err, just got out of bed. So much for going biking! 😀