Floods
The BBC News helicopter has footage of flooding in the north of England.
Rescuers have been evacuating homes in York where water levels are still rising, and thousands of people in north-west England are without power.
Some of them are friends of mine, and probably of yours.
City of York Council said the River Ouse was 5.1m above normal summer levels and was expected to peak around lunchtime on Monday – close to its highest recorded level of 5.4m.
It said about 500 properties were directly affected by flooding and a second rest centre was being opened for residents.
Meanwhile, North Yorkshire Police is urging people not to travel to flooded parts of York, as well as the Selby area, where the Ouse has burst its banks and is threatening homes in the village of Cawood.
And as for West Yorks…
- Police say West Yorkshire is experiencing its worst flooding in 70 years with more than 2,000 homes in Calderdale and 1,000 in Leeds affected
Stay dry.
The water table here has risen to the point that water is pouring out of the fields through the stone walls, every bank has a waterfall, and every step we take in our well-drained garden creates a puddle – and we’re getting more storms. The field behind us has had a permanent pond in it for the last several weeks; it has not ever flooded before, that anyone can remember. I haven’t been able to go out cycling since September, because all the roads have flooded sections.
The dog walk now consists of a stroll up the road to the flooded section, where a U-turn is made; a walk back down past the house and round the bend; up to the next flood and another U-turn, then back home.
We had trouble making it into town to visit our granddaughters on Christmas Day, because of floods; if we’d been in a small car, we wouldn’t have made it.So we didn’t even attempt to go anywhere on our anniversary (our 36th, on the 26th).
I feel very sorry for passing so much rain onto the UK, but there is a limit to how much Ireland can absorb; as it is, we’re rapidly changing from The Emerald Isle into The Greenish Swamp.
My sympathies to everyone going through this. I do indeed have friends in the affected areas – and my son goes to Leeds Uni. His digs are not too far from the flooded parts of the city centre. We think his place will be OK but, being Xmas, there’s noone there to check. Fortunately his room is on the first floor…
I have other friends who have water three feet up their living room walls. Some of them have relatives who have been evacuated. It’s appalling and the circumstances leading to this level of flooding are likely to become more common over the next decade or so. Of course, it’s not Hurricane Katrina but it’s enough to make life very difficult for a lot of people for a long time to come.
It’s another example of what can happen when you stop clearing and dredging watercourses, that are known to be prone to flooding, and let them revert to their “natural” state – in accordance with EU directives. Same cause as the flooding in Somerset. Coupled with allowing homes to be built in flood plains.