Stormy near Keswick…..

An absolute nightmare considering some sewerage will be mixed in with rain water washing into people’s homes.

Floodwater is nasty stuff; it’s picked up every bit of fertiliser and manure off the land, mixed it up with raw sewage sucked from drains and septic tanks, added in things like petrol and diesel where it’s undermined station forecourts, carried along drowned animals and it then deposits the whole lot in a filthy brown ooze of rotting vegetation and polluted mud.

Basically anything that has sat in it and absorbed it – wooden furniture, soft furnishings needs to be disposed of as hazardous waste, anything else needs thoroughly disinfecting.

Maybe Dave can help shovel some of it out…

I’m not Southern, I’m Welsh

I hadn’t realised. I’m so, so sorry.

@binners. Apology accepted.

@footflaps. read my post properly put yourself in the place of those that really are suffering.

I hadn’t realised. I’m so, so sorry. 🙄

mt – Member

@footflaps. read my post properly

What post?! 2nd Login cock-up? 🙂

jp-t853 – Member
oh dear a decent thread terns in to handbags at dawn. Give yourselves a shake

Almost too subtle.

Some people on my Facebook feed were really quite shocked to hear of substations flooded, 55,000 homes without power, refuge centres being set up, people stranded etc (in Lancaster), and to see the extent of road/bridge damage in the Lakes. Maybe they just haven’t been paying enough attention to the news…

@bearnecessities

it got removed.

Basically anything that has sat in it and absorbed it – wooden furniture, soft furnishings needs to be disposed of as hazardous waste, anything else needs thoroughly disinfecting.

Maybe Dave can help shovel some of it out..
Or get him to sit in it for a while and then we can dispose of him as hazardous waste.

This thread is showing some of that left-wing hatred that the press are highlighting at the moment.

Pretty sure David Cameron’s email address is easily available for you guys to send in some death threats.

Here’s an official one :

https://email.number10.gov.uk/

or hand-written death threats can go here :

The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

This thread is showing some of that left-wing hatred that the press are highlighting at the moment.

And rightly so.

If you don’t hate Cameron you are a failure as a human being.

Oooooooooooo – hark at ‘im

I don’t think hatred of the shiny headed cockwoble is specifically the exclusive territory of the left.

If you don’t hate Cameron you are a failure as a human being.

😆

Sad to see the thread being turned political, but in the cold light of day rivers do tend to flood by increasing the height of the banks its moving the problem on somewhere down stream.
If you either are a believer or not in global warming with a wetter climate this is going to become more common event.
the existing homes will have to be flood proofed as much as possible, hard flooring concrete wall coverings etc but land is precious or this tiny island and building more homes on natural flood plains isn’t going yo help.
immigration isnt helping matters, building firms can throw up new homes on said flood plains, walk away with the cash and leave it too EA, councils and insurers to sort out
Rant over

Or perhaps the house building firms may have to also invest in the local infrastructure in order to get planning bit more of a rant

A few minutes on the CW Herald pages shows the damages across the area 🙁

https://www.facebook.com/cwherald

in the cold light of day rivers do tend to flood by increasing the height of the banks its moving the problem on somewhere down stream.

Is that actually a problem here though? I’m struggling to think of the massive flood defense upstream of Pooley Bridge.

Is it not just that an utterly mind boggling, ludicrous, riduculous, crazy, record breaking about of rain fell on already wet ground?

immigration isnt helping matters

Whhhhaaaaaa…?

Not wanting to sound like I’m playing devil’s advocate, but did these places flood 100 years ago?

I’m asking as I know someone in Kent whose grandparents lived in some town where three rivers meet, and which made the news when it flooded 5-6 years ago, with the media screaming that the government and EA should “do something” as these riverside properties had flooded.

Old Pat just looked at the telly and said that her grandparents had lived in one of the cottages on the report and every November had moved all their belongings upstairs and lived on the first floor till February because it “always flooded”.

This would have been early 1900s so I’m curious whether older locals in Cumbria would know if flooding – not necessarily as sudden as this weekend’s – was a known risk 3-4 generations ago, which has been forgotten about more recently?

No; not that I can remember.

Plus, Coniston lake used to freeze over; it doesn’t anymore.

global warming for sure.

Well, durrrr it’s the lake district! Much of the problem relates to agricultural land an upland catchment management with more area being better drained for pasture rather than wooded also ‘bad’ flood schemes of old have impounded rivers causing increase in flow rate and volume within the channel.

but yeah there were pretty catastrophic floods in Kendal in the 20’s for example

Old Pat just looked at the telly and said that her grandparents had lived in one of the cottages on the report and every November had moved all their belongings upstairs and lived on the first floor till February because it “always flooded”.

Good luck selling your house with that in the brochure….

Not wanting to sound like I’m playing devil’s advocate, but did these places flood 100 years ago?

Yes. Carlisle had a famous flood in 1822 with water halfway up Rickergate which is… well… Almost exactly where is was on Saturday.

Listening to 5 Live it sounds unfeasibly grim up there. No power, cold, dark and miserable.

An absolute nightmare! 😥

AIUI highest river levels ever seen…

Listening to 5 Live it sounds unfeasibly grim up there. No power, cold, dark and miserable.

…and Egremont didn’t even flood.

To be fair, that description matches anywhere north of Leeds for 6 months of the year….

I’m asking as I know someone in Kent whose grandparents lived in some town where three rivers meet, and which made the news when it flooded 5-6 years ago, with the media screaming that the government and EA should “do something” as these riverside properties had flooded.

Yalding. I’m the Environment Agency Project Executive for the feasibility study in the Yalding Area. It’s a long standing issue and an extremely challenging area to work in.

Whhhhaaaaaa…?

It’s true, the border with Yorkshire is completely open 🙁

I do like the idea that flood defenses, recent changes in land use and immigration are the reasons behind flooding in the Lake district. Not just the wettest part of the UK getting record levels of wetness.

we are lucky to have such titans of thinking on this forum

Not just the wettest part of the UK getting record levels of wetness.

Said yo mama.

Sorry about that…

Well yeah numb nuts but the point is it’s the towns that are flooding which is partly due to inappropriate planning, increased drainage of agricultural land. It’s pretty common knowledge that the hydraulic capacity of the basins has been significantly reduced and there a number of pilot projects ‘re-wilding’ significant parts of these catchments to slow flow etc starting up at the moment. ‘It’s a thang – 4 real’. The rains were exceptional – I know i seed them with my own eyes and everyfink and would have caused flooding but the way we’re responding to floods is with concrete meanwhile blaming climate change for the increase in flooding, which is only a tiny factor at the mo. It’s the same reason you’ve got no groundwater left down south, because for for 1000 yeas we’ve looked at water on the land and decreed it a bad thing that we’ve got to get rid of.

Back on topic,
My elderly parents were rescued at lunchtime, they’re on both BBC and Sky news helicopter footage being rescued from the garage roof with the dog.
The closest I could get was about 300yds or so away from the house.
Apparently they’ve had over 6 feet of water in through the ground floor.
I’ll head back down tomorrow morning to see what I can do, probably not a lot.

That took a turn for the worse 😯

Hope things are stabilising (at least) and getting better (hopefully) for all caught out.

Wrote up a few case studies of the past floods for GCSE Geog students and looking back here and in the 19C the similarities and differences are interesting.

Any environmental workers and/or geographers in the area? I am intrigued by the amount of damage on the W side of Helvellyn. Landslips are not uncommon on this stretch and yet it is one obvious stretch of fellside that has forests alongside. Ok so the higher fell is barren and saturated so you get a lot of immediate surface run off, but the middle and lower slopes are forested that should give some protection? what’s the informed explanation?

FYI – http://www.cumbriacrack.com/2014/01/28/lake-district-conference-trees-can-reduce-flooding/

Ditto, was the road collapse caused by erosion of the river undercutting the road or water coming from the W side or something else.

Excuse the random questions, and possibly the untimely questions (if insensitive) just love properphysical geography!

Stabliser – would be interested in studies of impact of issues such as concrete/surface ruin-off versus agriculture/forestry – any links?

Not wanting to sound like I’m playing devil’s advocate, but did these places flood 100 years ago?

Car isle…clues in the name.

It’s pretty common knowledge that the hydraulic capacity of the basins has been significantly reduced and there a number of pilot projects ‘re-wilding’ significant parts of these catchments to slow flow etc starting up at the moment.

Release the Beever!

@flatfish – good news they are now safe.

Not wanting to sound like I’m playing devil’s advocate, but did these places flood 100 years ago?
Yes. Carlisle had a famous flood in 1822 with water halfway up Rickergate which is… well… Almost exactly where is was on Saturday.

So the potential has always been there? Its the frequency – possibly – and greater population density that are the changing factors?

the old bridges that have been washed away are an indicator that this was a spectacular event by historical standards…unless of course these old bridges have been knocked down and rebuilt a few times in the past.

Busting a rainfall record once, and then again 5 years later does sound ominous though…..if it fits the pattern of warmer atmosphere means more precipitable water content then there is plenty more leeway on the upside for future events to be more intense.

Maybe the sort of industrial heavy rock armoured huge flood drainage channels that alpine villages use to deal with snow melt may be more appropriate in future years for the lakes…although that will deliver water even faster to Carlisle and Cockermouth.

Maybe worth considering the voting record on Climate Change of 2 of the Cumbria MPs that have been all over the telly sympathising with their flooded constituents over the last 24 hrs

How Rory Stewart voted on Miscellaneous Topics #

Consistently voted against greater regulation of gambling Show votes
Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change Show votes

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24964/rory_stewart/penrith_and_the_border/votes

How John Stevenson voted on Miscellaneous Topics #

Generally voted against greater regulation of gambling Show votes
Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change Show votes

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24799/john_stevenson/carlisle/votes

Not sure where this is but not what you expect a high street to look like;

That’s Cockermouth.
Walked along that Main St at lunchtime today – bloomin inspiring seeing the work going on. There was no feeling of “woe is me/victims”, just folk with their sleeves rolled up and wellies on, the council out in force clearing and washing and loads of positivity – even the notorious Traffic Wardens were helping some old fella with a sore back and ignoring vehicles parked on (muddy) double yellows.

Cumbria is open for business and pleasure folks, so don’t stay away.
The Whinlatter Pass is shut tonight to get JCB’s in, but will be re-opened tomorrow.
Hope Keswick and Carlisle are bouncing back as quickly.

Why do idiots always film with their phones in portrait?