Worst hit areas braced for yet more rain (UK flooding update)

[demoleft]

Source: The Guardian

Flood-damaged regions of central and southern England were on alert again today, as more heavy rain was forecast to move in from the Atlantic this afternoon.

Up to nine hours of persistent rain will bring a risk of further flooding in saturated areas of the Severn and upper Thames Valley, the Environment Agency said.

Damage to communications could hamper efforts to restore water to 350,000 homes in Gloucestershire, where engineers are working round the clock on the polluted Mythe pumping station.

Severn Trent Water and the army said that bottled supplies of water, and those brought in by tanker, now amounted to over 6 million litres a day and were running well, with reports of vandalism stemming from a handful of "stupid" but minor incidents.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2136551,00.html

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Officials report that stories of care and solidarity are much more numerous than cases of selfishness and vandalism. High responsibility and mutual carefulness in the communities, which is really good.
Water through the taps is expected by Tuesday though only for washing at first.

Keep up, people! It soon must be over.

A BBC link to update: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6918539.stm

[Indenturedebtor]

1. Hang in there guys

Glad to see you're all getting on with civility. I hope this is over soon

[cliss]

2. Thax for the update.

I've been reading european papers to see what the prognosis is. It seems that the rain is going to continue. So far, London has escaped unscathed. But - as long as it keeps raining, the tributaries will fill up. Further downstream, the flooding happens.

So if I were a Londoner right now, I'd be looking at my Flood Insurance paperwork.....while I was packing my things.:smoke:

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. London's probably at low risk, compared with upriver

Through most of it, the Thames is tidal, and they have the Thames Barrier to actually control it a bit - they can, if necessary, keep the incoming tide out, so that the water flowing down from the upper river has more room to fill - and when the tide goes out, they can release it. The tidal nature of the river in the city means it normally has big flows going through it, so it can cope with the extra rain water, while the narrower freshwater river can't. London's problem, that the barrier is primarily designed to stop, is large tides, combined with low pressure, and winds funnelling the sea in from the North Sea.

Also, the rain on Saturday night/Sunday morning wasn't as heavy as expected, so things look a little better today.

[cliss]

6. Thankx for the background info -

I'm here in Oregon. Whenever we have heavy rainfall, (or snow melt) it's not so serious early on, like maybe Portland. But once those rivers make it out to the Oregon Coast, that's where the flooding hits.

I was assuming the same thing about London, but this sounds like a better situation.
I have some relatives in Sweden, and they are saying that things are really wet in Stockholm right now.

[dipsydoodle]

8. The main issue with central London itself

is that it's at least 15 feet below sea level. The Thames Barrier was built to protect London against three events coinciding. A low pressure area above the North Sea, a spring tide and persistent heavy rainfall in the upper Thames all occuring at the same time - water coming downstream would have met water coming upstream and flooded London.
Hence my mention of Teddington Lock in the other thread. Those 3 events coincided in 1968. Hence this :


edit - changed pic.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. 'at least 15 feet below sea level'?

What sea level do you use? That's not what the Ordnance Survey maps say.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Yes - I rechecked

and should have said some areas of London are only 10 feet above sea level and that's actually south of the river - north of the river lowest looks to be 20 feet. I checked on Google Earth this morning and assume that to be accurate. Could've sworn their justification for building the barrier was what I'd said originally - must've been the figure for the rise in Thames I had in mind.

Although in a compeletely different context this conveys that a 20 foot rise would flood some of London especially south of the river : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/24/wflood24.xml

[KamaAina]

10. Huh? Only one world-class city is as much as 15 feet below sea level

and even then, only in a few isolated pockets: New Orleans.

Now if we could only get our own regime to acknowledge this... :grr: :banghead:

[dipsydoodle]

7. But don't forget

that to protect London they're able to shut Teddington Lock completely if necessary. For the benefit of anyone outside the UK that's the last lock. That then necessitates shutting some of feeder rivers upstream of Teddington.

Go here and just see what they did to the East and West Molesey and Walton on Thames when they did just that back in 1968 by shutting off the River Mole : http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/pictures/themes/floods.htm
Scroll to 1968. Needless to say it didn't go down too well with the locals.

[demoleft]

3. "Floods claim another victim" (SAD UPDATE)

The Guardian, Sunday July 29, 2007
"The death toll from Britain's worst floods in decades rose yesterday with the discovery of a body in a submerged field near the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury.

Police said they was believed it was that of 19-year-old Mitchell Taylor, missing since water overwhelmed parts of the town a week ago.

The discovery was made by a team of Italian volunteers who had flown in to help with the relief efforts.

The three, who work for the Protezione Nazionale agency, came to the UK with a hovercraft they use for flood searches."

Six other adultes are reported dead in these days' flood, a 14-year-old boy died in Sheffield.

The news in The Guardian http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2137149,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

The BBC reports good news. "Water treatment works repaired"
"The Mythe water treatment works has been restarted and is due to begin feeding mains water back to the flood-hit residents of Gloucestershire.

Significant progress had been made in repairing the flood-damaged works over the weekend, Severn Trent Water said."

The BBC link to the news http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/6920994.stm

[demoleft]

4. "As the floods recede, the yarns flow in" - Stories from the hit areas

"'This morning we were all sitting out here. We got chips, and the fire brigade turned up with some bottles of water, bless them. The sun came out, and they served it up: perfect timing.'"

Spirit and Strenght. Beautiful, from The Guardian / The Observer, here:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2137169,00.html