Nw Severe Flooding Thread - 19Th Nov Onwards.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Where did you hear that from Dogs?

[dogs32]

Where did you hear that from Dogs?

Just was on Sky news..saying 11 people missing icluding a Police officer who was swept away off a collapsed brdge.....

Edited November 20, 2009 by dogs32

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Check out this data, provided by Brampton Weather Station. It shows the wettest individual months and locations within Cumbria. Staggering figures, but they also show quite how wet it's been over the past few days in comparison.

http://www.bramptonw...al1978-2008.pdf

I'd heard about the policeman, but not the others. Hope it's wrong on all counts.

Edited November 20, 2009 by Osbourne One-Nil

[dogs32]

Check out this data, provided by Brampton Weather Station. It shows the wettest individual months and locations within Cumbria. Staggering figures, but they also show quite how wet it's been over the past few days in comparison.

http://www.bramptonw...al1978-2008.pdf

I'd heard about the policeman, but not the others. Hope it's wrong on all counts.

staggering truly..

yes same here....

deadful situation...

[The PIT]

I know this is neither the time nor the place, but I feel compelled to nonetheless - who are these absolute morons who are getting stuck in flooded waters?? Warnings have been out advising for over 24 hours the risk of dangerous flooding conditions, yet people go out anyway, driving...reminds me of the people who got stuck out in the SW and the huge army operations required to get the cars out of the drifting snow.

Unless absolutely necessary, do not travel. You getting stuck puts not only yours and your passengers lives at risk, but so too the emergency servicemen, all because of certain idiots who don't listen!

By all means protect your loved ones, protect your property - stay safe! Do not venture out unless absolutely necessary means JUST that.

Best of luck to all.

This is because people have to work and bosses don't let them leave early or if they do leave early they'll be in the office next time they're in threatened with the/or sacked. Some of course are just sighteers and one or two foolhardy people. In the floods in Sheffield 2007 work colleagues were refused the right to go home despite the worsening conditions.

The rainfall of 314mm was that between the offical recording period or just the hours shifted to fit the period in. Either way impressive and it'll be interesting too see if it's offical and what other records come in.

On other matters rumors of a Policeman getting swept away from one of the collapsed bridges and the normal Darwin award people going onto parts of the collapsed bridge to watch the floods. If these people were responsible for the loss of the Policeman I hope they feel really guilty about it and never sleep again.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

That's a massive assumption there Pit.

[dogs32]

PM just offered any help...

Over a ft of rain fell!!!!

Wettest day EVER THERE...

1000 year event

BBC...High volume of calls of missing people.(police)

Hopefully just panic nothing else

Edited November 20, 2009 by dogs32

[The PIT]

That's a massive assumption there Pit.

That's why I said if but they are reports of people standing on the remains of the bridges which is stupid.

[Coast]

Missing Policeman now reported by several media outlets along with the collapsed bridges:

www.guardian.co.uk

The officer went missing as the Northside bridge in the village of Workington, Cumbria was destroyed by fast-flowing flood waters.

www.thesun.co.uk

SKY offering a 'Flood Rescue: What You Need To Know' page

news.sky.com

[trickydicky]

Missing Policeman now reported by several media outlets along with the collapsed bridges:

www.guardian.co.uk

www.thesun.co.uk

SKY offering a 'Flood Rescue: What You Need To Know' page

news.sky.com

Crikey, the flooding must have been bad if Workington has been reduced to a village...

[SalopWatcher]

http://www.streamdays.com/camera/view/lake-windermere-ferry-crossing

Last checked this cam last night and the raod was still visable... now... Well you can see how high its gone!This is at lake Windemere Ferry crossing..

Police boat there at the moment.

[Iceni]

"“We are frightened,” he said. “If the water raises another foot it will be in the hotel. We can’t get any sandbags. They seem to have run out. We are trying our best to get as much flood protection as we can. We have never been affected on this scale before." Manager Cockemouth Hotel.

What a disgrace… John Holmes posted 3 days ago on here that anyone living near a water course in the area should prepare for flooding and added "it's very serious, I don't usually make posts of this type". Shame no-one on the Council was reading this site and thought to beg borrow or steal sandbags for the poor people of the Lakes.

We'll still be back to holiday there next year, never fear Lakelanders — even if we have to bring our gumboots.

[Coast]

Cockermouth:

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

Not sure if this is the right place, but the last picture of a series on the BBC site regarding flooding purports to show snowfall in Skegness ???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/front_page/newsid_10000000/newsid_10003000/10003092.stm

[Scarf-Carrot-Coal]

""We are frightened," he said. "If the water raises another foot it will be in the hotel. We can't get any sandbags. They seem to have run out. We are trying our best to get as much flood protection as we can. We have never been affected on this scale before." Manager Cockemouth Hotel.

What a disgrace… John Holmes posted 3 days ago on here that anyone living near a water course in the area should prepare for flooding and added "it's very serious, I don't usually make posts of this type". Shame no-one on the Council was reading this site and thought to beg borrow or steal sandbags for the poor people of the Lakes.

We'll still be back to holiday there next year, never fear Lakelanders — even if we have to bring our gumboots.

These are exceptional events and they are almost impossible for councils to put in place sufficient precautions - they don't have the resources. 30cm of rain in the UK is not what you call a common event although it demonstrates the potential impact of global warming. I used to live in Ambleside and my wife lived in Keswick so I know the area affected very well. I hope everybody keeps safe.

[Verglas]

report last night from my sister, that nephew is safe and staying upstairs in his house down in the bottom of Keswick, and my niece was collected from her work place over behind the river in Cockermouth by her farmer hubby on the tractor, water over the wheels on the way back home

still looks pretty wicked up there !

http://www.dokeswick.com/webcams/webcam_highfield.htm

Edited November 20, 2009 by Verglas

[The PIT]

Being going round trying to find rainfall events in lake District and haven't found any. Looks like it'll have to be the local boys that will have to go through the records. Came across this http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/320/1/barkerwilby04.pdf

I know when Sheffield flooded people said climate change this climate change that and we never had rain like that. Sadly My mother gave the most of our records away to Weston park for keeping but when I looked back ten years large amounts of rain weren't rare. http://www.sheffieldweather.co.uk/Heaviest_Rainfall_From_1989.pdf since then another one would have gone on the list.

Anyway it would be interesting if anyone has got any links for previous rainfall events in the lake district. Google so far has failed me.

[Verglas]

R122 back out on a shout

Ulverston area I think

Edited November 20, 2009 by Verglas

[OneOffDave]

"“We are frightened,” he said. “If the water raises another foot it will be in the hotel. We can’t get any sandbags. They seem to have run out. We are trying our best to get as much flood protection as we can. We have never been affected on this scale before." Manager Cockemouth Hotel.

What a disgrace… John Holmes posted 3 days ago on here that anyone living near a water course in the area should prepare for flooding and added "it's very serious, I don't usually make posts of this type". Shame no-one on the Council was reading this site and thought to beg borrow or steal sandbags for the poor people of the Lakes.

We'll still be back to holiday there next year, never fear Lakelanders — even if we have to bring our gumboots.

The Council has no legal duty to provide sandbags and it's not funded out of either council tax or the central govt funding. Polypropylene sandbags are fairly poor at flood protection anyway, they deteriroiate rapidly due to UV attack so have to be kept indoors and weigh about 20-25kg each. A sandbag bund needs to be twice as wide as it is tall so for a 3 foot wall in a standard doorway you need 135 bags. This is 2.7-3.3 tonnes of sand. Multiply this across a settlement and you are talking vast amounts. With water depths in excess of 10 feet and velocities so high that the Fire and Rescue Service was unable to deploy their boats as they wouldn't be able to even keep station, sandbags would be a waste of time. The council will have been in regular contact with the area Public Weather Service Advisor from the Met Office and the Flood Forecasting Centre has been issuing guidance that's been very accurate since Tuesday. I know several of the emergency planners in the area and they all worked through the Carlisle flooding and are excellent professionals. This level of rainfall is an extreme event and to keep the kinds of resouces to significantly mitigate this very rare event would have a significant impact on council tax for the area. I don't know many people who'd be prepared to pay an extra £200-£300 a year for an event that occurs once every 50 years or so.

Business owners need to take responsibility for the protection of thier own property, sign up for flood warnings and have appropriate protection in place.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Cork city has been flooded quite badly. Got a load of pics and video clips that I can hopefully upload later. Might not be able to get home to Tipperary this weekend as most of the main routes out of the city are closed!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1120/weather.html

[Weather-history]

.

Just read that Seathwaite in the Lake District is probably one of the wettest inhabited places in the UK, with an average annual rainfall of 3120mm.

Seathwaite has had at least one rain gauge on site for over 150 years.

The 50 year mean from 1845 to 1894 was 3487mm

191mm fell in 24hrs on the 26th November 1861

[dogs32]

375mm confirmed if I have that figure correct

[The PIT]

375mm confirmed if I have that figure correct

Yup over 36 hours according Louise Lear.

The Police man has been named and was trying to stop sightseers from an unsafe bridge when it collapsed under him. My thoughts are with his family at the present time.

[dogs32]

yea its not looking good now..He as been missing for a fair few hrs...

Same here PIT the family will go through a painfull time...

Saturdays rain wont stay long over the flooded areas so some good news but not much considering some of the floods were 8 ft high..

Also North Wales and Mid Wales have roads closed due to flooding

1000 stranded in Borrowdale valley

dont know if I have the spelling correct there

Edited November 20, 2009 by dogs32

[Polar Bear]

Missing Policeman now reported by several media outlets along with the collapsed bridges:

www.guardian.co.uk

www.thesun.co.uk

SKY offering a 'Flood Rescue: What You Need To Know' page

news.sky.com

Hey all

this is pretty horrible stuff really. I used to live in Oxford and was there in the flooding in 07, however thing what is happening is cumbria is far worse...what is the outlook weather wise on this is there more to come? I hope it is starting to dissapate soon?