Another downpour here today with more expected over the next few days.
The tributaries in our area are getting higher and all lead to the river Severn and onto England.
So I expect the levels of the Severn to rise over the next few days but not dramatically.
But leads me to ponder:

Most of us would have seen the news of the flooding in Somerset. Nightmare.
Is regular dredging the answer? I remember as a youngster dredging was regular river maintenance.
But as sea levels continue to rise, could it be possible that in the future there is nowhere for this water to go? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Kevin Agrees that the floods are coming and the world is doooooommmmmmmeeeddddd!!!

What's really needed is a combination of regular dredging and some sort of flood barriers on the estuaries, to hold back the highest tides. They manage very well in the Netherlands but they've got their priorities right - preserve human habitation first and look after the wildlife second.

One easy solution would be to divert the cash wasted on foreign aid to give much-needed British aid. It's totally ludicrous for a hard-up country like ours to subsidise rotten overseas regimes whilst our own people suffer.

It's not rocket science - we all keep our own rain gutters clear or suffer the consequences. Ignoring the escape routes for flood water has exactly the same effect, magnified many times over. Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have been susceptible to tidal and river flooding for centuries but it's only recent "government policy" that has ceased to take the necessary precautions to minimise the effects. Ours - 2008 Stornoway Grey HSE Auto
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As Prince Charlie said himself.... It's a pity the situation has gone on for so long.
It's really not good that the agencies set up to deal with this are squabbling over the issues they have been presented with while the good people living within the confinements of the flood are making do and trying to get on with life. Aristocracy at it's best. I hope everyone gets back to some sort of normality and the farmers/landowners are able to recover from this.

river flood banks are being abandoned by the EA (swale and ure in Yorks being two of the first abandoned) , Their maintenance and repair left to the landowners, this situation is untenable as there is no point maintaining your section if a neighbour does nothing, so the job is going to be given to an outside agency ( internal drainage board) the cost shared between everyone involved.

some say letting the banks erode will allow more water into farmers fields reducing the peak levels in York etc. The river engineers at a recent meeting I attended said the opposite, freeing the river will allow it to flow faster so York will be hit just as bad or worse and with less notice.

dredging may seem a good idea, but everyone wants dredging down-stream of their property and no-one want it upstream. personally I dont see how making the bottom of a river a bit deeper will affect its flow rate as the cross-sectional area dredged is tiny compared the the area of the river and its banks, dredging was more for navigation than flood control, also dredging can alter the flow of the river leading to bank erosion landslides and collapses.

work further upstream is more likely to work, slowing the water on all the upland land draining into the source of the rivers,
roads, car parks, roofs etc all drain any rain immediately into the nearest stream no sponge effect




(caravan sites are a know further flood risk, caravan roofs hard standings and roads all tipping water into the nearest pensioners front room. plough them up and restore them to grass fields) At work
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I lived in Somerset before moving to France and am well aware of what is going on there. If you talk to any of the locals who have lived there all their life, they will tell you that it is no coincidence that the worst flooding issues began after dredging the Parret and Tone stopped.

Good to see my chums from Wessex 4x4 Response have been running a "taxi" service for the residents of Muchelney who have been stranded for a month. Good that the County Council called in Wessex 4x4 Response but bad that they waited so long. John
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Nothing todo with what is happening in Somerset, but around our area we had acres of Flood Fields, they would back the Thames up and let the fields around our area flood, it's happened for years, not any more though, they are building houses on them, 1900 houses went up next to where we used to live, only needed to rain for an hour and our garden was flooded after the ground works were done, we moved away. Another seventy four acres of Flood Fields is currently being built on, another 30 acres of Flood Fields was taken two years ago for housing, with another sixty acres ear marked due to start building on within the next two years.
Yes, we have had a lot of rain, but we don't let it stand and drain away, we have to move it on where we can, then they wonder why we have hose pipe bans.

I grew up just south of York and the town I lived in suffered minor flooding in 2000, the next village along was built on a flood plain and out of 200 houses 198 were flooded. Some local river men put the blame down to poor repairs of the flood banks. All in all cut backs have happened for years and will continue to happen. Most probably the floods down South will be put down to climate change and very little will be done about it. Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
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All new housing at risk should now be built on 'stilts' and perhaps with the garage underneath, as the car can be moved to a safer place if need be. Stilts and the steel support framework should not add very much to the cost as it does away with a lot of foundation work. Just 'pile' the supports and construct a steel base.

The more we turn this country into a concrete jungle the less chance for natural drainage.

There has just been a new cemetery open up in Huddersfield. Locals said all along it's not suitable, the ground floods. First bad rain and the site has flooded. It seems these days nobody in authority is prepared to listen to such concerns anymore. Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
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The day after my OP, there was a real big downpour of rain here, I've never seen rain so heavy and prolonged. It must have lasted over 12 hours.
As a result the River Severn downstream in Shropshire some 30 miles away has flooded many properties.
Bloody nightmare for the residents.
There are two small tributaries on the outskirts of our village which are at normal levels as it's downhill from here for 15 miles. The water from them is now in the Severn.
We've been forecast with 2-3 inches (50-70mm) of rain over the next two days which will no doubt cause even more misery for those near the Severn later this week and the weekend.

What I don't understand is that it takes about 2 days for heavy rain here to really affect the Severn.
So, having that prior warning and given that the Environmental Agency check the river level every 3 hours some 5 miles downstream from here, is there anything more that can be done other that seemingly just sit and wait for it to happen? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

I know it's not exactly something they can do over night but if they stop building on flood planes and green/brown fields then the water would have somewhere to go without effect as many

Dredging will make water move faster, higher banks built up allows for more water to build up and have more force when it breaches, when were having as much rain as we are this year I don't think they can stop lots of areas flooding as opening up the river systems or any dams will let the water flow to further down which will pass on the flooding to the next village down the river

The only solution to the current levels of flooding is for it to stop raining. I don't think even Eric Pickles can arrange that!

As for the Somerset Levels, get the Dutch in. They have been doing flood prevention successfully for years and the Levels would look quite picturesque with raised dykes and windmills.

Any solution to flooding will cost money so it depends on whether the country wants to spend it. GONE - '07 TD4 GS manual Zermatt Silver
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npinks wrote:

I know it's not exactly something they can do over night but if they stop building on flood planes and green/brown fields then the water would have somewhere to go without effect

Chaps, you do realise that most of the homes that have been flooded are existing properties that are 25yrs+ old.

The new homes that have been built (in the last 25yrs) are actually safer, often having been build on land that is higher than existing homes, with designed in defence.

So this typical lazy argument that all the new buildings are at fault is rubbish.

We are seeing an unprecedented amount of rain fall in a very short time, the biggest issue going forwards is the chronic underinvestment in the Environment Agency, who will be able to offer less assistance in future years.

That is what should be targeted and addressed. Freelander 2 HSE Lux SD4 - Sumatra Black