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Somerset flooding.

wobbly

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Garage
I've been busy the last couple of dates, mainly checking minor roads for accessibility.

This is part of our 4x4Response role, working as part of the emergency response.

You may have heard of Muchelney - it's now an inland island connected to the UK by small ferry boat.

In order to get to the ferry though, there's a journey along a flooded lane, too deep for cars, too shallow for a boat, about 500 - 600mm deep.

We are providing a car ferry service through this section.

I also had to drove the lanes around Burrowbridge. To say its impactive is an understatement, today I drove an 11 mile section of flooded road, I felt like the last person alive!

gepypy2a.jpg
upemyha3.jpg


Photos don't do it justice, sorry!

Pete
 
Feel for those people pete, it's going to happen again and again I think.

Well done with your efforts
 
Burrowbridge was bad last year but this year its even worse - wonder what Nynehead, Bradford on avon etc are like... ?

Think im going to try and flood proof mine to a point but not sure how far to take it as dont really want a snorkel. Maybe just diff and gearbox breathers ?
 
That would be fine, I'm happy to 600mm, above that the cars may be capable but I may not be!
 
Bravo Pete, keep up the good work. Flooding is devastating, these people will need help. :thumbup:
 
But they did choose to live on a flood plain.

Gra
 
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But they did choose to live on a flood plain.

Gra

To some extent, I agree Gra. But some folks have more choices than others. We're all at some risk, from one type of extreme event or another.

My house is on the side of a steep hill, so I'll never get flooded out even if it's biblical, but I might get caught out if (heaven forbid) there was a freak landslide.

I can't imagine me driving on by when someone's in trouble, even when their poor judgement has caused their predicament.

The Jag on the beach is one example, who in their right mind would take their Jag onto a quicksand beach? It happens, they need help at the time not a lecture. (That can come afterwards :lol:).
 
Graham

The idea that the Levels are a flood plain is just not correct - but it's been repeated so many times it's now perceived as true.

The Levels are reclaimed land, like Holland, so the rivers are about 10ft above ground level.

So the land is like a soup bowl, wide and shallow, with nowhere for water to go - it has to be physically pumped into the rivers.

The land is then irrigated by a series of rhynes or ditches.

The idea is that the rivers flow through, in one end, out the other, water being taken off or put back in by the pump station, and thus the levels maintained (hence it's called the Levels)

About 1995 the Environment Agency decided to stop maintaining the rivers, mainly due to the cost, they stopped dredging the silt that comes from the Severn.

So now, the same volume of water comes in, can't fit in the rivers, so 'over tops' in to the land below, which fills up. It can't be emptied cos the rivers are full.

A flood plain is an area designed to take the run off from a river, then feed it back in as the river level drops, that's quite different and not physically possible on the Levels.

London, on the other hand, is built on a fluvial flood plain, imagine what would happen if the EA saved a few quid by not using the Thames Barrier.......

Pete
 
OK,

Good explanation.

Thanks Pete.
 
Thanks for that Pete; I'm used to the Marches of Shropshire and the River/Water Meadow's of Berkshire, both of which are much closer to the idea of the flood plains that Graham was thinking about.

The guys I used to work with in Berkshire are now part of the flood response for their area as they have dry suits, canoes, white water rescue training and first aid...
 
Good explanation Pete, I'm not too familiar with that area.

You can learn something every day!:icon-biggrin:
 
There is also the fact that many of the areas that are now flooding have no history of flooding.

It is a consequence of exceptional and unprecedented amounts of rain, but also of persistent lack of investment in flood prevention as detailed above, changes in agricultural practice leading to faster water run off filling the rivers more quickly, and the amount of land that has disappeared under construction of one sort or another over the last 10-15 years, again increasing run off and reducing the ability of water to soak away.
 
Graham



The Levels are reclaimed land, like Holland, so the rivers are about 10ft above ground level.



Pete

According to one of the local residents, interviewed on the news the other night, who has lived there for almost 30 years the rivers used to be below the level of the houses built either side. The lack of dredging has effectively raised the river beds. The geography of the Fens area of Lincolnshire is much the same.
 
Will put up more photos as I get them.

Pete
 
Hellish busy.

Worked on an evacuation in Moorland today, was on the news - Police helicopter shouting at people.

Fire Brigade starting to pull out due to cost of manpower so we are being asked to replace them for some tasks.

Tried driving a flooded lane tonight - 3 of us trying to get to a house to evacuate - honestly, s******g myself, had to call it off and admit defeat, emergency services can try in daylight.

Sorry, no photos, will try harder !

Pete
 
emergency services pulling out because of cost of manpower so handing over to charities, WTF!!!
 
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Living in York you get used to flooding but recently areas not usually effected have ended up flooded!!! The main part of the village where we live floods on a regular basis, other year had a paramedic in the passenger seat to get to one of the roads that gets cut off, even knowing the road it was still a twitchy moment as the bonnet went under, didn't used to get that deep!

Well done for the work your doing down there
 
Come on Pete. Bit short on pictures is this thread. I'd heard it's been sunny sun sun since Christmas down there. :eusa-whistle:
 
A little off topic, but while we wait for pictures :whistle:

on a recent trip to Oman, I witnessed a rainstorm in the mountains. No rain at all where I was but within a few minutes the nearby wadi was a raging torrent.

By chance, I came upon this on utoob, not my video, but a scene just like the one I witnessed.

http://youtu.be/Vt4DZvOZOBM
 
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