storm and floods in GB - is everyone ok?

[Rhubarbodendron]

In the news they showed pretty bad pics of the recent floods in southwestern Britain. A few people have been killed or injured by fallen trees, one person died when his car got wedged under a bridge, another fell into a trench and drowned. Quite a lot of settlements are reported to be cut off completely. There was a major landslide in Wales and last night windspeeds around 90 mph were reported from Snowdonia.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/shocking-sc...054146136.html

We have quite a few members from that area (mainly Cornwall & Wales but also Southeastern England and parts of the Midlands), I believe.
Please report in! Are you and your families well? Is there some way we could help?

I haven't seen RevdKathie post in a while. Is your parish affected as well, Kathie?

[MacLeod]

Well it is possible that they might not be able to respond if they are ok. If power etc.. has been effected.

[Rhubarbodendron]

Well, I'd count a power failure as not being okay, particularly at this dark and cold time of the year. (For many of my British friends being unable to produce a hot cup of tea would certainly rank as a minor catastrophy )

[MacLeod]

Well the Met Office has issued weather/flood warnings for parts of Wales and the North East of England.

[Rhubarbodendron]

in the news they said it were over 300 single flood warnings. Do you always get them for single rivers or are there county- or nationwide ones as well? (just professional curiousity - I work for the surface water dpt. of the Bavarian Ministery for the Environment)

[MacLeod]

As far as I am aware they can be either for specific areas or even nationwide if the storm was serve enough. Still whilst this storm has caused death and devestation. The worst one in recent times was the Great Storm of 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

[Shazam!]

Here in the North West of Blghty, it's glorious sunshine.

[Pingfah]

Falmouth, Cornwall. Having to ride 10 miles through this shit on a motorbike every morning at 7.30am. Took me an hour to get to work today because half the roads are closed off. It's cold, miserable and fucking horrifying.

[MacLeod]

Lets hope this isn't a sign of how winter is going to be.

[Rhubarbodendron]

Aww Is there no bus you could take, Pingfah?
I've never been to your area (but would love to!) but judging by the maps there are many hills around, some of which look quite steep. Do you get landslides or is the soil solid enough to stay in place?

The animals here don't think it'll be a cold and stormy winter. There are still a lot of spiders around and many migrating birds haven't left yet. This morning (or night, rather - 2 hours before sunrise) I heard a Robin

[Pingfah]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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Aww Is there no bus you could take, Pingfah?

There is, if I wanted to leave the house at 6.45am, stand around in the cold and rain as it is late every day, spend 70 minutes on the bus each way, pay £6 a day, and cope with the regular driver's strikes. Frankly i'd rather suffer on the bike

I've never been to your area (but would love to!) but judging by the maps there are many hills around, some of which look quite steep. Do you get landslides or is the soil solid enough to stay in place?

Can't say I have ever encountered a landslide, we are having some trouble with the stability of the local bridges with this awful weather though. They are having to close many routes for fear of collapse.

When it's nice though, it's really nice. When we get good weather (hopefully that isn't a thing of the past, although these last few years it has started to feel that way), there is nowhere I would rather be. Falmouth has a huge number of bars and restaurants on the waterfront for relaxed summer drinking, it's packed full of good looking students at term time and holiday makers in the summer, and has some of the most beautiful coastline you could hope for.

[MacLeod]

Shazam! wrote:

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Here in the North West of Blghty, it's glorious sunshine.

Well in my corner of North West England, I wouldn't go so far as to describe it as glorious sunshine, yes the sun is there but there are also quite a few clouds obscuring it.

[SmoothieX]

I saw floods in GB, and immediately thought you were talking about Green Bay, WI.

Checking out now...

[Rhubarbodendron]

Pingfah wrote:

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There is, if I wanted to leave the house at 6.45am, stand around in the cold and rain as it is late every day, spend 70 minutes on the bus each way, pay £6 a day, and cope with the regular driver's strikes.

Sounds like paradise, compared to Public transport in Bavaria!

When we get good weather [...]there is nowhere I would rather be.

I'll definitely put Falmouth on my to-see list for my next vacation in GB It sounds like an awesome place to visit.

Bridge foundations are always the weak point in a flood because they usually aren't wide enough and so instead of running between the two ends of the bridge, the water hits them with full force, often carving them out of the surrounding soil. Also, fallen trees and other debris tend to get caught in bridges, they block the water's path and increase the pressure so that the bridges often get torn away as a whole. What really makes me furious is people standing on bridges and watching the flood. It's so damned risky!

[Rarewolf]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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What really makes me furious is people standing on bridges and watching the flood. It's so damned risky!

Same with the news reporters on the US super storm.

I couldn't go to Birmingham for the weekend as both train routes out of Exeter were down, I could have got buses for half the trip, but in the end it was more trouble than it was worth. And I'd have missed watching the worst of the downpour too.

I live on a hill, but the drains block so the road next to us becomes a stream, and the bridge further down becamesunpassable. But it only lasts a few hours. I went out for a walk in it before it had all gone. It was about 40cm deep underneath the bridge.

I've only known it to do that three times in the past years (thats how long I've been here) and two of those times were in the past 3 months.