Flooding

asprilla

Anyone flooded?

Despite 24hr news channels insisting that Jacque Cousteau and Kevin Costner were the only people who could make it out of Walton alive (or not in Cousteau's case) I've noticed very few signs of flooding other than surface water in Hurst Park in Molesey.

I suspect my favourite pub may be suffering bu the water outside only looks to be 6' deep and you've got to go up a decent set of steps from there to the front door.

roger_merriman

Asprilla wrote:

Anyone flooded?

Despite 24hr news channels insisting that Jacque Cousteau and Kevin Costner were the only people who could make it out of Walton alive (or not in Cousteau's case) I've noticed very few signs of flooding other than surface water in Hurst Park in Molesey.

I suspect my favourite pub may be suffering bu the water outside only looks to be 6' deep and you've got to go up a decent set of steps from there to the front door.

Molesey would looks the most worrying as Hurst Park and the houses boarding are the same level but yes the media is not right. A number of my wife's work mates live in Walton and are still getting in by car/bus etc.

rjsterry

What? The whole thing has been exaggerated by the media?

asprilla

rjsterry wrote:

What? The whole thing has been exaggerated by the media?

Not entirely; Shepperton is the New Atlantis and I wouldn't be surprised if areas of Weybridge were underwater (but mentioning that in TV would affect house prices there so that's not going to happen).

roger_merriman

Asprilla wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

What? The whole thing has been exaggerated by the media?

Not entirely; Shepperton is the New Atlantis and I wouldn't be surprised if areas of Weybridge were underwater (but mentioning that in TV would affect house prices there so that's not going to happen).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26146361 shows how far it's got, it could get a lot lot worse since it has breeched its banks, and the land is on the whole buildup and flat.

jds_1981

Asprilla wrote:

I suspect my favourite pub may be suffering bu the water outside only looks to be 6' deep and you've got to go up a decent set of steps from there to the front door.

Uh, where do they store the beer?

rjsterry

roger merriman wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

What? The whole thing has been exaggerated by the media?

Not entirely; Shepperton is the New Atlantis and I wouldn't be surprised if areas of Weybridge were underwater (but mentioning that in TV would affect house prices there so that's not going to happen).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26146361 shows how far it's got, it could get a lot lot worse since it has breeched its banks, and the land is on the whole buildup and flat.

Hmm, looks much like what I saw further upstream outside Oxford on Monday. I can see why those who have been affected are pretty hacked off with how slow any help has been to arrive.

anonymousblackfg

I do like the locals, especially the inevitable council leader/MP or village mayor outraged that no one could have ever predicted this but they're battling back despite the Environment Agency/Government being 'incompetant scum' when a TV camera is stuck in their face.

Shocking that the environment agency publish this map:

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/w ... c=floodmap

for people to check if they are buying a house in a flood zone, very suprisingly, the areas that have flooded at in the flood zone, SHOCK HORROR!

roger_merriman

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I do like the locals, especially the inevitable council leader/MP or village mayor outraged that no one could have ever predicted this but they're battling back despite the Environment Agency/Government being 'incompetant scum' when a TV camera is stuck in their face.

Shocking that the environment agency publish this map:

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/w ... c=floodmap

for people to check if they are buying a house in a flood zone, very suprisingly, the areas that have flooded at in the flood zone, SHOCK HORROR!

Well these areas are flood planes, years ago back in wales one of the local pubs got flooded being next to the Usk on etc, landlady on tv says I've never known it so high, un heard of etc, locals in the pub pointed out some of the old photos and some of the features built into the pub to allow it to cope with flooding etc....

talius

I'm in East Molesey, right by Hampton Bridge. The neighbours are all pumping out their basements this week, constant high volume streams of water from the pumps, so it's clearly seeping in pretty strongly. My garage would go if it burst the banks on Hurst Road, but flat is above ground so no worries about that. Just need to be prepared to move the car fairly smartish.

sketchley

Talius wrote:

I'm in East Molesey, right by Hampton Bridge. The neighbours are all pumping out their basements this week, constant high volume streams of water from the pumps, so it's clearly seeping in pretty strongly. My garage would go if it burst the banks on Hurst Road, but flat is above ground so no worries about that. Just need to be prepared to move the car fairly smartish.

I'd move it now.

talius

Sketchley wrote:

Talius wrote:

I'm in East Molesey, right by Hampton Bridge. The neighbours are all pumping out their basements this week, constant high volume streams of water from the pumps, so it's clearly seeping in pretty strongly. My garage would go if it burst the banks on Hurst Road, but flat is above ground so no worries about that. Just need to be prepared to move the car fairly smartish.

I'd move it now.

Last time I moved it because of potential floods (after Christmas, when the warnings were worse than the event), I parked in on the private road in Bushey Park , and the wall next to it blew down overnight! :shock: Thankfully it blew the other way. They reckon the next rise might be at the weekend, so might go find a nice high up parking space somewhere this time.

asprilla

Talius wrote:

I'm in East Molesey, right by Hampton Bridge. The neighbours are all pumping out their basements this week, constant high volume streams of water from the pumps, so it's clearly seeping in pretty strongly. My garage would go if it burst the banks on Hurst Road, but flat is above ground so no worries about that. Just need to be prepared to move the car fairly smartish.

I saw them pumping out the last few houses on Hurst Road / Riverbank this morning.

EKE_38BPM

I'm supposed to be visiting a mate in Somerset at the weekend and was concerned about the floods so I called him and he said its fine. Where he lives is fine, where there is flooding is flood plains with nothing built on it and the roads are fine.








I'm still taking my wellies though!

rubertoe

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I'm supposed to be visiting a mate in Somerset at the weekend and was concerned about the floods so I called him and he said its fine. Where he lives is fine, where there is flooding is flood plains with nothing built on it and the roads are fine.








I'm still taking my wellies though!

I'd take a canoe....

jds_1981

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Shocking that the environment agency publish this map:

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/w ... c=floodmap

for people to check if they are buying a house in a flood zone, very suprisingly, the areas that have flooded at in the flood zone, SHOCK HORROR!

To be fair, that is quite recent - previously it should come up in solicitor checks if/when you bought the house (presuming you paid for the checks.)

Near my parents house, there's a new estate being built on some land called 'fishlake meadows'...

sketchley

The was a warning on the search for the place I just brought, "risk of surface area flooding" or something. Apparently happened once in the 30s or 50s or something, previous owners had been there 15years and seen nothing at all, so didn't worry about it. No warnings from environment agency yet but still it has made me think.....

DrLex

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I'm supposed to be visiting a mate in Somerset at the weekend and was concerned about the floods so I called him and he said its fine. Where he lives is fine, where there is flooding is flood plains with nothing built on it and the roads are fine.








I'm still taking my wellies though!

Wise - it's as wet as a haddock's swimmies here. Do check your route down; M5 between Bridgwater & Taunton is at risk and the A303 has some flooding risk points.

cookeeemonster

So are we unsympathetic to people who have chosen to buy a house (cheap, I assume) on a flood plain and have chosen not to get insurance?

I'm assuming there's a lot more to it than that - insurers wont insure, people cant afford it due to lack of work/recession, wasn't advertised as being on a flood plain when they bought it, big floods are very rare etc etc.

There's a lot of stick for the environment agency from the government shifting the blame. An agency that's had massive cuts since the new government came in...yet a lot less blame has gone to the farmers and landowners who have deforested their land for decades in order to make more money thus making the flooding and associated problems worse.

Anyone have opinions/more accurate knowledge of this?

rjsterry

There's already been a fair bit of detailed discussion on this over in Cakestop.

EKE_38BPM

DrLex wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I'm supposed to be visiting a mate in Somerset at the weekend and was concerned about the floods so I called him and he said its fine. Where he lives is fine, where there is flooding is flood plains with nothing built on it and the roads are fine.








I'm still taking my wellies though!

Wise - it's as wet as a haddock's swimmies here. Do check your route down; M5 between Bridgwater & Taunton is at risk and the A303 has some flooding risk points.

London to Bath on Friday then to Somerset on the A37 on Saturday morning. Looked fine when I last checked.

veronese68

rjsterry wrote:

There's already been a fair bit of detailed discussion on this over in Cakestop.

There's an interesting link on that thread about how dredging wouldn't help as there is so much water. I liked the comment from one expert that the way to avoid the flooding is to raise the land or lower the sea.
Am I right in thinking it's rained every day since the last hosepipe ban was brought in? Certainly feels like that sometimes.

slowbike

Sketchley wrote:

The was a warning on the search for the place I just brought, "risk of surface area flooding" or something. Apparently happened once in the 30s or 50s or something, previous owners had been there 15years and seen nothing at all, so didn't worry about it. No warnings from environment agency yet but still it has made me think.....

We're right on the edge of a flood warning area - the land used to flood regularly, but they built it up then put a housing estate on it. Our neighbours can remember it flooding once in "recent" memory - that was just up to the garage doors - so not the feet deep that some places are experiencing.
After that flood (that effected the local town far worse) they put in some serious flood defence scheme - and so far that has kept the levels down in our area (up stream) .

We had a flood warning phonecall the other evening - but no sign of the river coming up this high - yet!

What could cause our estate to flood would be a blockage lower down the river or unprecedented flow from up river - it's more likely to be the later.

DrLex

EKE_38BPM wrote:

London to Bath on Friday then to Somerset on the A37 on Saturday morning. Looked fine when I last checked.

If you can cross Bath, then you should be able to get down the A37 (although my colleague has just told me of a land slip on it below Yeovil on the way to Dorchester).

roger_merriman

Sketchley wrote:

Talius wrote:

I'm in East Molesey, right by Hampton Bridge. The neighbours are all pumping out their basements this week, constant high volume streams of water from the pumps, so it's clearly seeping in pretty strongly. My garage would go if it burst the banks on Hurst Road, but flat is above ground so no worries about that. Just need to be prepared to move the car fairly smartish.

I'd move it now.

agreed the houses on Hampton Court road have clearly flooded basements/garages, one of them has a Ferrari looking very sad, in the murky water. i went past a hr ago, wouldn't take much more water to get into the houses proper on both sides and further.

rjsterry

EKE_38BPM wrote:

London to Bath on Friday then to Somerset on the A37 on Saturday morning. Looked fine when I last checked.

Make sure you have your weetabix - the A37 is a bit hillier than Londoners are used to.

itboffin

Asprilla wrote:

Anyone flooded?

Despite 24hr news channels insisting that Jacque Cousteau and Kevin Costner were the only people who could make it out of Walton alive (or not in Cousteau's case) I've noticed very few signs of flooding other than surface water in Hurst Park in Molesey.

I suspect my favourite pub may be suffering bu the water outside only looks to be 6' deep and you've got to go up a decent set of steps from there to the front door.

you must rush there now with haste and save all the beer from the cellar before its too late

asprilla

itboffin wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

Anyone flooded?

Despite 24hr news channels insisting that Jacque Cousteau and Kevin Costner were the only people who could make it out of Walton alive (or not in Cousteau's case) I've noticed very few signs of flooding other than surface water in Hurst Park in Molesey.

I suspect my favourite pub may be suffering bu the water outside only looks to be 6' deep and you've got to go up a decent set of steps from there to the front door.

you must rush there now with haste and save all the beer from the cellar before its too late

All that open water swimming for triathlons has finally come into its own....

itboffin

if LiT olivia was still on here she'd still make us all sit outside in that

tommybc

lol look at this big house flooded, serves him right for building on a floodplane! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ZRSc75 ... e=youtu.be he's a wanker wan ker anyway

EKE_38BPM

I am an idiot.
I was riding through Oak Hill Park yesterday which is in a flood plane and has a brook running through it with a footpath next to it. At the slightest hint of damp weather the football pitches flood as does a stretch of the footpath.

I know this very well as I lived in the area for almost thirty years.

One the journey out I sensibly chose an alternative path up the side of a hill and stayed dry (well, didn't get any wetter). On the return journey I saw some dog walkers, not in wellies and with dry(ish) dogs walking back from the flood plane path so I decided to try it.
Dumb move.
There was a 30 metre stretch which was under water but didn't look too deep so I pushed on. The first few metres were fine, less than an inch deep and I carried on thinking I'd be fine. The path is cambered so I knew if I left the middle of the path I'd (literally) be in deep water. As I went further, the water got deeper, there was now way to turn around without being at least BB deep so I had to carry on.

When I emerged back onto dry land my feet were soaked and I'll have to relube my chain, pedals and rear derailleur. I then had to ride for 45 minutes with iceblocks for feet.

If I had taken the alternative path it would have been a 30 second detour but I would have had a much more comfortable ride home and saved time fettling my bike.