My daughter lives in Fishlake, on one of the worst affected streets. The other morning I wrote this for our close family group, and it just occurred to me that other people might be interested.
Thanks for that Bill, it is quite an eye-opener for someone who has never experienced anything like that. We get into a panic if the heating goes down for a few days I simply cannot imagine how you cope with your home ravaged and knowing it is going to be months before everything is cleared and cleaned out let alone the repairs.
My sympathies for your family and just hope they can sustain their fortitude over the coming months it is not going to be easy!
Richard
In message <qr0u5c$143b$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org>, Bill Wright snipped-for-privacy@f2s.com writes
Northern stoic! Well written:-)
Thank you. I've been mightily impressed by my daughter and her neighbours.
Bill
Would the steel piles be these?
It's scary driving on that road when the water is just lapping over them.
Thank you. At least we are a close family, and there are lots of us, and we can spend a bit to ease things if we need to. There's poor buggers in Fishlake and Bentley with no insurance and no family and no money.
Bill
These: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.6560427,-0.9927197,3a,75y,173.55h,82.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQAM7a5EI6zt1nVIPQ4sGSg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Bill
Round my way, it is called "sheet piling"
It can be used either to raise the height of a river bank or to prevent the river current eroding the bank.
Jim
In message <qr0u5c$143b$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org>, Bill Wright snipped-for-privacy@f2s.com writes
Great write up Bill, thank you. We suffered in the same way almost four years ago (Storm Frank), and we, personally, were very lucky in that water was three sides of the house, but the house itself was not flooded.
Many others in the village were not so lucky. What amazed me was the speed with which the water arrived then departed, with serious flooding starting around breakfast time, but all gone by tea time. The devastation remains, with some homes still not habitable nearly four years later. Like Fishlake, though, the community spirit was amazing. People suffered, but everyone helped everyone else, to minimise that suffering.
Not just the speed, but the power. I don't think anyone who has not personally seen the devastation caused by fast flowing flood water can really appreciate the power of water. Huge granite boulders, three or four feet across, swept for hundreds of yards across the golf course. Huge trees swept away. 107 mobile homes on the caravan park, all moved and most swept away. Incredible to stand on a bridge and watch mobile homes floating across a field.
The next day was heartbreaking. Countless personal possessions all around the village from cooking utensils to sofas, fridges etc., many items up in trees, the water had risen so high.
This is what alway amuses me about people needing to be "rescued". What's wrong with just sitting tight above the water for the 12 hours or so the actual flood takes to come and go? OK if the building is at risk of being swept away or collasping but otherwise if you can keep your feet dry?
Being flooded is something I'd almost not wish on my worst enemy.
Most village like communities do when that community is put under stress be that flood, threat of dam collaspe or 6' of snow appearing overnight.
I wouldn't go onto a bridge under flood conditions unless I really had to. They have a habit of getting washed away and you don't get much warning.
PC Bill Barker... RIP.
no heating & no food is probably a good reason.
You won't get either once you get stranded in your car trying to escape, and in every other way you will be worse off, and further will be unnecessarily endangering the lives of others whose job it will then become to rescue you. I'm with Dave on this, unless you have specifically been advised to evacuate and been given a route out that is known to be safe, or the building that you're in seems likely to collapse, why increase the risk to yourself, those close to you, and emergency service staff by venturing outside in such atrocious conditions?
Take us much as you can upstairs to keep it from being damaged, and ensure that you have a supply of fresh safe water for making tea or coffee, some tinned soup, some bread and cheese, and a camping stove + gas + kettle + saucepan + matches, and some squat candles such as t-lights that aren't easily knocked over. Turn off the electricity supply before or as soon as water starts coming into the house, and/or if you are asleep upstairs and therefore can not know what the water is doing overnight. If you are likely to be without heating in winter, good sleeping bags are a boon. In January '14 after the wildest storm that I can recall we were without electricity here for 4 days - my home is heated by electricity (but even if yours is not likely you will still need it to control your heating system). The storage heaters were lukewarm by the end of the second day, and stone cold by the start of the third. I spent most of the four days in my sleeping bag, either reading or sleeping, because there was nothing else I could do while remaining in the relative warmth of the sleeping bag, but I survived it fine.
Then there's the other risk. People wonder why the Fire Service and RNLI in their dry suits are walking so slowly when moving someone in a RIB. Simple answer that may Joe Publics don't recognise is that when drain water from roads cannot get out into the rivers etc it backs up and blows the lid of access points so there could be a 2ft square invisible hole where you are about to put your foot. People trying to get out don't realise this so not only put themselves at risk but others who might be trying to rescue them too. No Charles, you are dead right. If you have the means to survive upstairs then do so until rescue arrives or you are formally told what to do.
Upstairs the humidity means that everything is running with water. It's impossible to keep dry. The smell is terrible. No electricity, no heating. Water likely to be contaminated or might be cut off. Probably no medications. Probably no toilet.
Bill
Except that until the flood actually started the Environment Agency were saying unequivocally that Fishlake wouldn't be flooded.
Bill
Except a wise householder keeps such supplies in hand anyway.
All the above is even more true of a family stranded in a car.
All very well, but Fishlake had been told previously that a flood could be very sudden and very deep, and a very fast torrent. This would be in the event of the bank giving way near the village. In fact the flood was swift but only got to a height of about four feet in most parts of the village. Now bearing these facts in mind would you hang about with your wife and kids when the water was coming up rapidly?
Maybe if you were in a burning tower tower block and the advice was to stay put you'd shut the curtains and put the telly on, to see if it made the news?
Bill
It wasn't part of the plan to get stranded.
Bill
A prediction of a very fast and deep torrent is all the more reason to stay in a place of comparative safety, your home.
What an absurd thing comparison to make!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.