Floods

Come on Roders we don't need to see that

 

You'm right our Mandy, i'm declaring a state of national emergency now

 

In that case the precedent is an event from 250 years ago, but lets not split hairs.

The facts remain that 1) We have had major flooding in the past, several times, yet clearly no lessons were learned from that and 2) We've been warned for decades to expect more 'extreme weather events' and yet there's been no preparation for them and 3) If there had been more preparation, in the form of better management of where rainfall will end up, either through better drains, better landscaping, better building design or some other means, then while you'd still get flooding in the most extreme situations, it wouldn't be anything like as bad as it currently is.

If we keep dismissing everything as 'unprecedented', then I'm afraid we're stuffed, because as long as we keep sticking concrete and tarmac on land that was previously permeable, putting more burden on drainage and sewage networks, while at the same time ignoring weather trends, it can only get worse over time. If we keeping writing events off as things like 'once in a century' or 'unprecedented' then we may as well just give up now and leave people to take their own chances wherever they might be.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong but can politians be totally blamed for this current situation? Why do we now live in a society where there always has to be somebody to blame? Say if I fall over in the supermarket it couldn't possibly be just my own fault could it?
No doubt if the powers that be had been more proactive/less wasteful with our money when organising flood defences, the situation might have been better but isn't it just that we have to accept incidents like this will happen every now and then. Having experienced 1st hand being dramatically flooded I am not sitting in my "ivory tower" on this subject just being a little more practical than some people who I've heard on the TV basically demanding that everywhere in Britain should be protected from flooding.
When we were dramatically flooded, dramatic because of the massive speed and height of the river, The River Clyde rose 27 feet above normal levels yes 27 feet which to use roders words was unprecedented ! There is no way on earth the banks of the river could be raised say 28 feet to stop the river ever flooding our property again so you accept the situation and hope it takes many years to happen again. We flooded in 1994 and the house hasn't flooded again since then despite some huge amounts of rainfall.
If billions of pounds are to be spent around The Thames area and in Somerset what about those who suffered terrible flooding in and around Carlisle a few years ago? or those in Stonehaven near Aberdeen who were flooded out of their homes 3 times in less than 3 years. Did they get emergency hand outs? I know we and others who flooded when we did didn't get a penny!
The who is going to get increased protection and who isn't is the real political hot potato imo. I have a suspicion it might well be those more affluent areas!

 

Do certainly agree about building on flood plain. We were involved in objecting to a planning permission for housing due to us KNOWING the piece of land flooded quite regularly even having photos as evidence. Despite our evidence permission was granted to build about 40 houses. These houses were built in 2004. To my certain knowledge at least 3 of these new houses flooded in 2011. I am convinced that there was financial gain for some local councillors in this particular case but it's a whole different ball game trying to prove same unfortunately.

 

So if Government Departments' projects get delayed because of this adverse weather, will the 'unspent' funds be appropriated to spend on the flooding/storm damage clear up?

 

I think Clueless is coming round to the truth and that all present media reports are not lying.
It's no shame to be that little bit incorrect sometimes mate.

 

Does anything seem to have changed over the last couple of hundred years?

"The next 140 years were marked by an inability to take action on the part of those responsible for the maintenance of the drainage scheme. Once completed, it came under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Sewers, and routine maintenance did not take place. In 1811, the Commissioners pinned their hopes on the proposed Bristol to Taunton canal, which would have crossed the drain by an aqueduct, which would have included a new clyse at a lower level than the Dunball outlet, but the canal project came to nothing. The banks continued to slip, and the peat continued to rise up in the bottom of the drain. They asked Robert Anstice to produce a report on the condition of the drain in 1816, but it was 1818 before the report was produced and highlighted the poor state of repair of the system. They also asked for a report on ways to make the bridges wider, but nothing came of it. Ten years later, they commissioned another report, but the local landowners took matters into their own hands and asked Josiah Easton to inspect the drain.
Easton reported that the drain was now nearly useless, and that £10,000 would be needed to put it back into good order. In 1829, he published a proposal to improve the drain so that it would be navigable from Dunball to Yeovil. Drainage required the water levels to be lower, but navigation required them to be higher, and so the scheme came to nothing. The Commissioners scoured the drain, but no real progress was made. In 1842, another report was commissioned, from a Mr. Glyn. His two alternatives were to lower the clyse at Dunball by 4 feet, and to convert the lower part of the channel into a reservoir. Steam engines would be used to pump water into it, and it would empty by gravity at low tide. The Commissioners were unsure whether their powers allowed them to start such work, so they did nothing. In 1844, with the clyse doors in imminent danger of collapse, they paid for the cill to be lowered by 20 inches and fitted new doors, but the moors still flooded during most winters.
The Commissioners were replaced following the passing of the Land Drainage Act in 1861. A special commission, which was only responsible for King's Sedgemoor, was created, but like their predecessors, they found that their powers were limited, and their ability to raise funds by rates was inadequate. A high tide in 1876 carried the clyse gates away, and the adjacent bridge had to be demolished for safety. Tides passed up the channel and flooded the moors. Work to construct a new bridge with tidal doors cost £16,000, and the area was impoverished by the debt. The Somerset Drainage Act of 1877 was another attempt to sort out the lack of administrative power, but no work was undertaken in King's Sedgemoor. Serious breaches of the banks occurred in 1872, 1891, 1894, 1924 and 1929"


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Sedgemoor_Drain

 

Obviously this is a subject very close (not dear!) to my heart. Our flood somewhat upset our lives (bottom half of house destroyed and garden literally gone as speed of river uprooted vast quantities of my plants and greenhouse demolished). All I do know is that flooding and yes ours was at the very top of the scale of severity according to our insurance company, isn't anything in comparison to loosing a loved 1 or your own health for that matter so people need to get their priorities right. It is devastating and in our case, like many, it takes years (we took 3) to get the house and garden even vaguely back to how it was. If we could pick our lives back up with basically no help from the council then others can too, it just takes a bit of backbone and fighting spirit.We weren't ancient so were physically able to get our hand dirty (oh the happy memories of removing human waste from the house and "female accoutrements" which decorated the remaining trees and shrubs in th garden!!!!!) It will be that much harder for the elderly who will need help, maybe people will get pleasure from being neighbourly again?
I have seen a good deal of people being interviewed on the TV who have basically given up and that's before they have even started to rebuild. Just as well we didn't have that attitude back in 1939-1945!
Perhaps once the flood waters recede it is the time to get some of the fit and able unemployed to assist in the clean up, it isn't skilled work I know!!!