Island Flooding

May all your furniture float at a reasonable level

 

Haven't seen it on TV but it was online.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-35006332

 

Although the disadvantage of living on an island is there's nowhere to go should this situation have worsened, there is also an advantage - that the flood water recedes quickly and allows the island residents to start the clear up. However, the terrain of the island is such that great amounts of rain create landslides and this in turn puts restrictions on movement and promotes road chaos, particularly during peak hours.

I feel for the people on the mainland, it must be devastating, they have no idea when there lives will be back to normal again.

Thanks to those who tried to seek out info on what's been happening here. I have to say the residents of the island are used to being completely ignored by the UK. It only exists when the English government wants to take something from us. The news channels follow suit. It is not the back of beyond as many think. Our technology has been way ahead of the UK at times and many inventions/discoveries are also island raised, many of which have been claimed by England as their own, that makes me so angry!

You've made some good points FC.

The UK once had natural ways to cope with the excess.....floodland. That has now been developed into huge housing and industrial estates which leaves the water nowhere to go. The infrastructure laid for these estates was and is never going to cope with excess flooding!

Just one more thing....... I'd like to thank David Cameron for forgetting that the Isle of Man exists, particularly at a time like this. Perhaps our own government (Tynwald) might remember this when Westminster decides to cripple us for years again with huge tax demands! This island a tax haven? Not in a million years!

Sorry all, I'll step down now.

 

Im near to hawick which flooded.When the river is low you can see numerous islands that have grown over the years in the river because no one dredges it any more.Theres 50 year old trees in there and massive amounts of boulders and they wonder why the town keeps on getting flooded ?
intensive farming also causes rapid water run off . Local roads drains blocked with mud from fields . Fields are now massive as the dividing walls/hedges/trees have all been removed so the massive machinery can harvest quicker but the water doesnt get held back now and runs straight to the river causing sudden devastating floods.
Sensible land management would have prevented this flood near me anyway.No doubt they will just build bigger walls that no doubt will fail again.................................

 

Sorry you've had such devastation @Sheal. We've had gales here. A few trees and garden fences are down, but nothing compared to what's happened on IoM and Cumbria.

I saw the devastation that flooding causes back in 2007 when I had to find a way to cross the valley in Sheffield. My 2 mile journey was actually 30 miles that day as I tried to find a way round. I still have the image in my head of someone's front garden washed away, literally down to the bedrock. No soil left, and it nearly broke my heart when I thought of all somebody's work, literally erased completely.

 

Thanks Clueless.

I can understand how certain images remain after experiencing something like this. When trying to get out of Douglas on Thursday only one road remained passable, which by that point had a river flowing from right to left across it and the flooding stretched for a good 100ft. Vehicles were taking it in turn to drive through it and I must admit I was nervous, it was the deepest I'd had to tackle and knew my car doors would be beneath water level. I stopped to speak to the police officer on duty there and he said to drive slowly and don't stop. It was scary and I was really in two minds about it but knew it was the only way home. Yes, I tackled it and my car coped without stalling and remained dry inside thank goodness, but I can still picture it now.

 

No one stops to think of consequence when they build, we have permission granted this year for 1800 houses on a flood plain.
I am thankful I live on a hill with good views, I am also surprised my gazebo is still up!!
It is tied down with earth screws and good rope and some ratchet straps, I knew it would be windy so I upped my defences.

But some silly clot in a warm office with his I now it all badge on, sitting on his certificate of competence looking at pictures of England under water.
He will not stick his nose out and say we could do better, he will say any defences work the damage would have greater but for his actions.

Well I worked for a company that over engineered everything to 150%, buildings still operating today 140 years on with items over 50 years old.
My point is calculate the need and build in the unforeseen extra, the restraints are the aforementioned clot above and budgets.

Rant over folks

 

Our roads are clear of water now FC, well they were, it's currently pouring with rain again.

It's interesting that modern engineering doesn't seem to stand the test of time. The older part of the bridge that collapsed here in Laxey is 200 years old and still standing, the modern part is underneath the bus.

It has been decided that the entire bridge will be dismantled, the bus removed by crane and a new bridge designed and built. Jimcub is right, what's the point of cutting corners, do the job right in the first place and it works out less expensive in the long run both for public safety and on the pocket.

Canvey Island in Essex, an area I know very well is below sea level. The flooding disaster there back in 1953 meant that unless the island was to be lost to the sea, defence had to be substantial. Those defences were built and are still standing now.

 

I saw a bloke on the news today doing a report next to the new flood defences that were installed after the last big one up there in cumbria, not sure of the actual location.

It consisted of a wall with what appeared to be stainless steel framing bolted on top, with glass sections.
It was at least 6ft high and there was a torrent of river running on the other side.
It came over the top of this.

So how how high do you build the glass now??????

Dont and cant see how you can defend against such things personally.

 

Perhaps they should try dredging Pete as they have now done in the South West of England.

The bus is old @fat controller, at that cost perhaps it is just as well it isn't one of our new fleet. We have double decker Volvo's and single decker Mercedes-Benz.

 

Corners are cut to save money in the short term. The only people that care about the long term are those that would be directly affected.

The politicians that authorise the expenditure cut corners because their goal is to make a great show of saving money. They will just blame the engineers or the architects or the environmental advisors that gave them the wrong info, or anyone else they can.

The advisors will argue that they made worst case predictions and probable case predictions and the bean counters ignored it all and went for best case. The engineers will argue that they wanted a particular grade of material or a particular number of widgets but they weren't given the budget for what they thought they'd really need. Everyone will blame everyone else and nobody except those they serve will care.

In bygone times, money was no object, because most projects were a display of power for the insanely rich, or the might of the empire. Stuff was built to last, but it was built on what we'd now consider to be slave labour, to keep costs under control.

 

The slave labour still exists unfortunately but the quality doesn't. It makes a mockery of the costs now.