UK Storm Warnings

[neil 2,398]

Local councils dont care what their local people want & how they live as long as they get revenue they will just keep on building & building & building  never mind the destruction that it causes ,  A lot of Hard working farmers in Somerset Have lost everything due to these floods , thousands of cattle , sheep have drowned along with peoples homes , just because they want to build more houses , make me really angry . And to add isult to injury our local council have just granted plannong permission to build 30.000 more houses on brown field land so that it can accomodate more people to build Hinkley point nuclear power station .

Getting angry , i need to stop now

[Stormin 9,975]

I sometimes say I pleased I'm the age I am. I feel sorry for the young ones. What's it going to be like for our children as they grow older and the grand children and their off spring?

Anyway, are the water levels falling yet?

[Anglo Traction 759]

Not aware of any animal deaths down there?, but know of the Crop Loss costs.  

Not over yet either.

2 more pretty heavy storms are due through Thursday and the Weekend.

I see the Railway Line and Station are being slowly wrecked in Dawlish.

 

Much of the water supply issues in the South East and West are due to the sheer volume of population here, the Aquifer Storage and Reservoirs are unable to sustain the demand for long. All the water runs out to sea and can't soak into the underground storage quick enough. No space for more Surface Storage.

 

I watched a programme about the Water Companies behaviour with regard to investment the other night.

I was shocked to hear that they had paid out as much in share dividends as the had made in profits out of us! 

I don't have a problem with Water Meters. You should pay for what you use. The issue I have is the High Charge Rate per Cu Metre.

 

It won't get any better as Stormin says. The Towns down here are being joined up due to expansion. It will only get worse

 

The Jet Stream controls our weather in the Northern Hemisphere. we get what it wants to produce, no if's or but's.

Ok , we had the wettest winter or month for a hundred years, so what. It is not new, because it was nearly just as wet a hundred years ago!. 

They were having serious Storms here in 1703 (24th November) !!. Before we started seriously burning coal and a fraction of the current population

Just because the Thames has not completely frozen over for a couple of hundred years, it doesn't mean it won't happen again. (it nearly did in the 1940's) 

The severe weather in the U.S. is coming from the Canadian Arctic, so the only consolation is that the Polar Ice must still be frozen and not melting.

 

Got to take what Mother Nature throws at us.  

[neil 2,398]

Richard, Mother nature i can cope with, but when i see  local councils & the environment agency avoiding things that should be taken care of each year by dredging rivers & clearing Ryhenes , it  makes me angry that both the EA & the council are arguing over who is actually resonsible for clearing the rhyenes , & while they are doing this houses are being drowned . Over the last couple of days i have been in an argument with the local labour councilor on why we In Somerset are experienceing such regular flooding and it was confirmed by the British Drainage board that the largest contributor by far  to the flooding within the Somerset area   Is over developement . Tens of thousands of  of low rate affordable housing are being built on Brown field land & small market towns just cannot cope with the extra amount of dwellings that have been built , besides the extra housing they are also not building the infastructure to cope with the traffic demands , when the developers bought up the brown field land it was agreed that a levy would be built to retain the extra volume of water that would arise from the development , but that has been shelved due to cost , so i seems that all the right noises will be said at the planning stages so that planning is granted then later it is said that a levy would be too expensive so would not be built & in the meantime we as residents of Somerset pay the ultimate price .

I come home from work tonight  to find my garden has 18inches of water all over and the rhyene next to the house is just about ready to burst & we are due for another storm tomorrow so the next time i write on Redsquare i could be wearing a snorkel & flippers & a wetsuit

[wheeledhorseman 573]

Much of the water supply issues in the South East and West are due to the sheer volume of population here, the Aquifer Storage and Reservoirs are unable to sustain the demand for long. All the water runs out to sea and can't soak into the underground storage quick enough. No space for more Surface Storage.

 

I watched a programme about the Water Companies behaviour with regard to investment the other night.

I was shocked to hear that they had paid out as much in share dividends as the had made in profits out of us! 

I don't have a problem with Water Meters. You should pay for what you use. The issue I have is the High Charge Rate per Cu Metre.

 

 

Here in South Central I suppose you'd call it most of our water is drawn from the Hampshire Basin, one of the largest natural chalk aquifers in the UK. Since moving here in 1977 there has never been a hosepipe ban even during the hottest and driest summers. Since their introduction many years back it has been the customer's choice whether to have a metered supply or not but making some use of govt drought provisiion orders Southern Water forced everyone to have a meter, not that the basin has ever run low so I guess, as you suggest, it's financially motivated.

 

 

Local councils dont care what their local people want & how they live as long as they get revenue they will just keep on building & building & building  never mind the destruction that it causes , 

 

Really sympathise with your feelings Neil. Romsey is a small market town and it has grown gradually since the sixties with the occasional small development here and there. Suddenly we're faced with huge building programmes that our local authority are dumping on us e.g. 'Abbotswood', an 800 dwelling 'village' on the edge of the existing town. Last winter after perhaps only a quarter of this was built flooding occured on a neighbouring estate where it hadn't ever before.

 

The developers admitted that they had a problem with one of the 'balancing ponds' which form part of the drainage system but claimed that the flooding was mainly due to the adjoining nature reserve. Despite some remedial work flooding has again occurred this winter and pressure from the local MP amongst others has forced the developers to accept that there is a problem that requires significant improvements to overcome. Not surprising really when you see this photo of the site in January looking like a Marina Development.

 

 

We're also faced with three other new developments, one for a 1300 home extension to the town - this madness has to stop.

 

Andy

Edited February 5, 2014 by wheeledhorseman

[Stormin 9,975]

Hoping it won't get into your home, Neil. 

[Anglo Traction 759]

Yep!, fully aware of the Buck Passing by Municiple and Government created Quango Agencies (that's why they create them),  but I try to avoid major politics on the Forum.

The exact same issues exist in my Area(s). Amongst other local developments, they are putting 3000 houses up on Flood Risk Agri Land  near me called 'The Acres'. they had to install massive Pumps, Balancing ponds and deep water courses in the development. Still only have the 2 old small roads to access it !!.

I only wish they'd build on Brown Field sites here, instead of Green Field (agricultural).

Also here, my water pressure has been reduced since August 2011. We also are the first area to get a Hosepipe ban after 3 months of low/no rain. 

 

The difference is geographical (population aside) and that the Levels are on or below Sea Level, not good for anyone living or working there.

We all know that it takes a serious crisis to occur, before any reaction is acknowledged by those with longer trousers.

A 100 Million Pounds has been granted to assist the area. Everyone knows it will be frittered and will not go anywhere towards solving it.

 

Yes , I also hope Neil avoids another serious Flood. I am not confident it will be avoidable with what is due to drop out of the Sky and get blown back up the Local Rivers.....Roll on Spring 

Edited February 5, 2014 by Anglo Traction

[wheeledhorseman 573]

Yes - fingers crossed for you Neil!

[specialwheelhorse 174]

We here on this side don't know what to say or do that would help.

It seems our media is only stuck on the idiots over here and are not concerned

with the best friend we have over there and we have little or no

coverage but bye you guys. Thanks for keeping up with things there,

It's the only way we know !!!!!!!

[Anglo Traction 759]

Hi SpecWH, Being a resident of the 'Big State' and close to Dallas (lucky Man), I'm sure your TV Channels have plenty to cover being part of a 'Big Country'.

Over here, we're in for yet another 2-3 days of wet windy weather and probably more Coastal damage and inland flooding.

Here's a news link if your interested:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26042990

Regards

[specialwheelhorse 174]

Thanks for the link,just what we need,

As for our locals keeping up with new news

Ha Ha !! They seem to go over the same stuff

for days. Over and over and over. We get so tired

of the same old balony we just shut it down.

Thanks once again, I'm never bored by your link's

[neil 2,398]

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-02-05/huge-waves-damage-railway-line-in-dawlish/This is my town at the moment after the rain has been pouring down now for over a month

Prince Charles came to visit my town this week & donated £50,000 to help towards to flooding repairs (good Dude)

 

 

 

[neil 2,398]

The squigley thing on the second picture from the bottom is the main road that leads into my town .

Its been like that now since Christmas .

[wheeledhorseman 573]

We had flooding over Christmas and through into the New Year Neil but it was mainly down to the sewer / suface drainage systems being unable to cope. Well, we've joined the club properly this time!

 

Early Friday morning the River Test finally broke its banks and came on into the low lying part of town you can see why in the photo.

 

 

The river would normally pass unoticed in a photo like this as it's not exactly large or wide but it's been spreading out onto fields that form it's natural flood plane for weeks and now it has entered the town making its way along roads, up drives and into peoples homes.

 

 

 

It's taken over the Memorial Park

 

 

Closed businesses

 

 

and some people have had to evacuate their homes - they won't be able to move back in any time soon until all the damage is put right. Tankers are back removing excess sewer water in an attempt to stop it popping covers and spilling out into other roads.

 

Here's an ITV news report - no sign of the army here but the rest of the footage is from Romsey.

You can't embed their videos to play directly on the page but if you click the 'watch on vimeo' button it should open in a new browser window then click the play button.

 

http://vimeo.com/86190526

 

As the resident observed, not much you can do about it really but it's worth mentioning this....

 

Back in 2007 the Environment Agency published a report which placed Romsey at severe risk of flooding. I haven't observed any major projects being undertaken since that report but I did check the EA flood warning website a few weeks back when the River Test had overrun and closed a link road on the edge of town. This is what I found.

 

 

The 'No Warnings' bit seemed strange, particularly as it is claimed that the page is updated every fifteen minutes. But look - last updated on 2nd November 2011 (What?)

 

Following this up I learned from them that they had stopped monitoring ground water levels in Romsey back in 2011.

 

The EA is taking a lot of stick at present but surely in this case fully justified given that their own report pointed to the high risk here long before the weather was anything like it has been recently. So it appears that their only action resulting from their report was to stop monitoring. Needless to say they couldn't or wouldn't give an answer as to why that decision was taken.

 

We're lucky - we live on higher ground at the edge of the town but really feel for those who don't wherever they are in the country.

 

Andy

[Anglo Traction 759]

Not good Andy. I would avoid getting fuel from that Service Station!.

Similar issues in my area too but not at all as serious as yours/other areas.

I'm 250 metres away from the local Flood Risk Area's Limit . Lot of lying water in that area (where they plan to build). 

River Mole (source) about a mile away has burst in several areas and over the roads.

I'll try and get some pics on Sunday when the winds and waters subside. 

Hopefully will have a day in between the next few bands of heavy rain to permit some water levels to drop a little.

 

I made sure when I bought the Horley place, that it would not be affected by risk at all, so I'm not threatened by it.

Surprisingly, no further trees down yet with these winds. See what tomorrow looks like.

 

Edit:- Just taken an E.A. image copy of my area. Purple is the wet bit. Arrow point is where I am, and the planned 3000 house development area is in Red...... Should be interesting, they've only completed the first phase so far due recession.

   

  

Edited February 9, 2014 by Anglo Traction

[neil 2,398]

Andy , Welcome to the Flood club , i cant beleive the EA stopped displaying  out flood warnings  in 2011 .  surely this is evidence of neglect .

[Stormin 9,975]

 i cant beleive the EA stopped displaying  out flood warnings  in 2011 . 

 

I can. It's all part of D.E.F.R.A.   Destroying English Farming and Rural Areas.

[Anglo Traction 759]

And it gets worse. You've probably seen the Floods of Worcester and the Thames Valley. It's going to get worse over Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Getting real serious now.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26111598

[neil 2,398]

Just a few pics thats the extent of the flooding on the Somerset levels

Was good to see the Royal Marines helping out

The bottom picture is the view from my bedroom window

[roscoemi 245]

You guys have a heck of a mess over there. If it get's cold you would have a very large skating rink tho.

[C-101plowerpower 1,605]

You guys have a heck of a mess over there. If it get's cold you would have a very large skating rink tho.

Horses on ice

Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-S6810P met Tapatalk

[shorts 182]

We have had record snow this year and I'm ready for spring to come, snow is an inconvenience but I'll take it over all of the rain and water damage that flooding does.

[Anglo Traction 759]

We have had record snow this year and I'm ready for spring to come, snow is an inconvenience but I'll take it over all of the rain and water damage that flooding does.

I think your right. It's getting pretty bad for thousands of households now that the Thames has burst.

In for another 2 weeks of rain and strong winds.

It will get very serious at the weekend, as there is another 3 inches of rain expected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26111598

Edited February 11, 2014 by Anglo Traction

[neil 2,398]

OMG 3 more inches of rain at the weekend , i cant take any more .

[Anglo Traction 759]

Just to clarify that Rain quantity for you. There is expected to be another 3 inches of rain by the Weekend.

It takes a few days for it to add to the existing problems. Not good at all, as there is more to come after then.

 

If I had any, I would be selling my shares in any Insurance Company pronto.