Lincolnshire floods

[Bob Williams]

Many of you will have seen the floods in my county, on national news.

http://tinyurl.com/y23p65bl

It has been horrible for the south of the county, indeed for lots of East Anglia, the South and South East. We were expecting some more overnight last night and into today, but it has not happened, which is a relief for the people of the Wainfleet area. Two of those people are friends who used to be neighbours and really wish they had not left the north of the county. They have been flooded out of their home, a bungalow, so unable to move anything upstairs. The RAF have been using the weather break to continue working with the Environment Agency and other emergency services, to repair the breach in the River Steeping bank. All emergency services have been working flat out to help those affected and it has been evident that the much-maligned BBC has been a great help. According to locals affected and evacuated, local radio and TV was their best source of up to date information and helped them take steps to save what they could. Then there was this:

http://tinyurl.com/y3o94rt9

The Lindsey Marsh Drainage Board maintains all rivers, watercourses, dykes and ditches that serve as surface water drains across the county and often into neighbouring counties. It is not a widely-known fact that Lincolnshire serves to drain water from a large part of surrounding counties, through an extensive network of canals, streams and rivers, drains, dykes and ditches, to the sea. There are pumping stations all over the county. However, funding cuts have forced the LMDB to reduce dredging and clearance work. The LMDB and local residents have continually brought this to the notice of the Environmental Agency, to deaf ears, for some years. When we first moved here 19 years ago, LMDB machines were regularly seen working on various waterways, dredging and clearing, using the material brought up to build up banks or spread on farmland. This organisation is staffed by experts and has been in operation since the 1930’s. The EA is a relatively new body and has neither the experience nor the expertise of the LMDB. The EA is, of course, a government organisation that is responsible for funding the LMDB, which also works as part of a consortium from neighbouring areas:

http://tinyurl.com/yyzd9bwl

The county is the second largest (in area) in England. The north-south length means that our area of East Lindsey has the lowest annual rainfall in the whole of the UK, whilst further south, away from the higher land of the Wolds and into the flat farmlands, there is greater rainfall. That was evident yesterday and today: yesterday we had some rain up here, whilst the south suffered the tropical deluge and floods. Today it has been fine here, and thankfully the flooded south has not received any more rain. The reasoning behind the EA’s inability to fund dredging by the LMDB, is that the rainfall was “… an exceptional event, a once-in-a-century happening.”

…Which is exactly what they said after the 2007 floods.??

The other miscreants are of course the developers who build and sell properties on a flood plain, Planners who pass their developments, and government agencies who allow it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

The same issues that plague the Somerset Levels. It took a catastrophic flood to stop the bad practices, but they seem to be creeping back as it costs money.

They had to bring huge pumps in from the Netherlands, amazing seeing how much water they shifted.

[Bob Williams]

Dave we holidayed in a Somerset Levels B&B around 28 years ago, can’t remember the name but it was out in the sticks and we could see the Tor from the farm and the tiny village. (With a great pub!) Apparently the place had flooded during the winter that year and the drive to the cottage had been almost washed away. I believe much of the Levels is like the south Lincs flatlands, which had once been Fenland and was at, or in some cases below, sea level. Lots of  “X____ marsh” place names in the area.

We have also had help from the Netherlands, who have carried out beach renourishment for some years now and have saved much of our coastline.

Another reason to thank our European neighbours….

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[JayCeeDee]

I saw on the news from Lincolnshire, those pumps chuck out 4 tons of water a second. It looked like a dam draining out!!!

[The Duke]

My area had a load of big floods early last week. It was quite amazing ast we didn’t even have thst much rain. Lots of roads closed and floods houses. Don’t know if it nade national news. Couple of the old Terri Ed at the top of my road was flooded too, but they get it a few times a years due to mountain  run off hits them and there is a fldrop to their house. Proper srupid design. And to this day I don’t know why they haven’t solved it with a wall to defect it.

Naco on topic, the low lands had it rough last week.

[Richard]

We have been lucky with no flooding here, but for the first time in a long while, we have had enough rain to water the grass and turn it a funny colour; – green.

The Somerset level floods were the subject of great arguments over the changes in policy/rules with no dumping of the dredged material to build up the banks (so vastly increasing the costs) as had been the practice for a hundred years or more. The current mob of environmental wallies running the show did not appear to understand the first thing about flow management. It is fine to slow the entry of flow into a system, but as you traverse the operation a good open flow becomes increasingly vital. The wallies saw no problem with reeds blocking choke points at bridges encouraging silt build up and flow restriction. I understand they did the same sort of ass about face mess in Lincolnshire, so pressure built up against a weakened, neglected river bank until it burst. The complaints had allegedly been flowing in for the past 8~10 years. So while the numb nuts did not know or understand, they had no excuse for their costly ignorance. Its a shame the insurance industry, (for whom I have little or no love) cannot sue them for dereliction of duty or malfeasance.

[PlaneMan]

I live on what is technically a flood plain. I’m almost equal distance between 2 rivers that used to burst their banks fairly often before I was born.

Since the Cardiff Bay Barrage was built I haven’t seen either the Taff or the Ely get anywhere near the top of their banks near Cardiff.

I have seen both rivers look close to bursting their banks further up-stream a few times when I was doing fairly big miles on my bike and once was very glad to have a fat bike when the the Taff did slightly overflow (can’t remember where but on the way to Merthyr on the Taff trail)  as one of the lock gates on the barrage was stuck.

[PlaneMan]

I live on what is technically a flood plain. I’m almost equal distance between 2 rivers that used to burst their banks fairly often before I was born.

Since the Cardiff Bay Barrage was built I haven’t seen either the Taff or the Ely get anywhere near the top of their banks near Cardiff.

I have seen both rivers look close to bursting their banks further up-stream a few times when I was doing fairly big miles on my bike and once was very glad to have a fat bike when the the Taff did slightly overflow (can’t remember where but on the way to Merthyr on the Taff trail)  as one of the lock gates on the barrage was stuck.

[Dave Rice]

There were 13 of them in the end

The fighting end

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