Another flood....Prayers to our UK friends!

fieldops

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It's incredible to see more of the flooding in the UK. Prayers to all of our UK friends (and unfortunately our own people in Texas too). Hope you guys dry out soon. Flooding is pure misery. Remember to keep your lights in low output. It could be a while.....:shakehead
 
Only 48,000 people without electricity now.

The army managed to stop a major substation from being flooded by using 6000 sandbags. It was two inches away from being over topped - That would have cut off the power to 500,000 people.

Major problem is 350,000 people have no mains water - and it could be for up to two weeks!

its at at www.bbc.co.uk/news is you want to read about it.
 
I'm lucky living as far north as I do we are quite high up.

It sure would be exciting to experience it though. :D
 
Good save by the army. That would have made things worse by a significant magnitude. I was looking at some historical rainfall totals yesterday ( I consult on Tropical Meteorology). it looks like the UK has not seen this kind of water since just after WWII. That's pretty darn severe. You guys hang in there. Things got to change soon, I hope....:shakehead




Only 48,000 people without electricity now. The army managed to stop a major substation from being flooded by using 6000 sandbags. It was two inches away from being over topped - That would have cut off the power to 500,000 people. Major problem is 350,000 people have no mains water - and it could be for up to two weeks!
 
According to CNN it was the Royal Navy that pulled off the save of the power station. Gotta give credit where credit is due. I suppose I learned something about this. I never realized that a large part of Great Britain was so vulnerable to flooding. I just figured that aside from the shores that much of the country was comfortably above sea level.

Oddly we're in a drought of sorts and are still at least 3-4" behind on rainfall this year. Go figure.
 
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Oddly we're in a drought of sorts and are still at least 3-4" behind on rainfall this year. Go figure.


yes it's amazing that fires are burning up the west, but go a few hundred miles and people are being plucked from rooftops in flood. I think at this point, people could use a break now. Whether nature will give it to them is another story, I guess.
 
Living in Berkshire, I'm smack bang in the middle of it. I didn't get flooded at home but I'm having to go the long way round to get to work. The office is having sand bags delivered today just in case. On the other hand, My radio control boat didn't see so much action for years.
 
Man, the weather is crazy. Floods in the UK and USA, and scorching sun here in Italy. We had the first rain yesterday after weeks.

I ain't praying because I don't believe there's anybody to pray to, but I do hope the floods end with the minimum possible damage to life and property.
 
Living in Berkshire, I'm smack bang in the middle of it. I didn't get flooded at home but I'm having to go the long way round to get to work. The office is having sand bags delivered today just in case. On the other hand, My radio control boat didn't see so much action for years.
Have they lifted the hosepipe ban yet?
 
According to CNN it was the Royal Navy that pulled off the save of the power station. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
What about our guys? We had Ops teams there too - providing the portable flood defences.
And the Fire Service - best not forget them either - the high-capacity pumps were vital.
Bottom line: Men and women from many different agencies and services acted together. This, more than anything is something we should be proud of imho.
In fact one of the impressive things we are seeing is people supporting each other in their communities during these difficult times. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to flooding.

Note that the 2" figure is a bit of a misnomer - it was actually more like 6" of defence above the peak water level.

I suppose I learned something about this. I never realized that a large part of Great Britain was so vulnerable to flooding. I just figured that aside from the shores that much of the country was comfortably above sea level.
In fact around 5 million people (9% of the population), in 2 million properties, live in flood risk areas in England and Wales. The Environment Agency has an important role in warning people about the risk of flooding, and in reducing the likelihood of flooding from rivers and the sea.
One of the ways we manage flood risk is by the 24,000 miles of flood defences.
The rainfall events in June and July 2007 were so extreme (perhaps as extremely as 1 in 600 year events in places) that our surface water drainage systems, river catchments, flood defences and some critical infrastructure was completely overwhelmed in some cases.

It should be noted that less than 1% of properties were flooded as a result of defence failures (breaches). The use of the term "river burst its banks" is being used instead of the more accurate "river overtopped its banks".

I work in Development Control, the 'pre-emptive arm of flood risk management'. My team help prevent inappropriate development [in the floodplains] of two main river catchments in the Anglian Region. Our region suffered more in the June 2007 flooding rather than this current July 2007 flood incident.

The Anglian Region covers more than 27,000 square kilometres with large areas of flat, low lying land, a quarter of which is below sea level.
Land use is mainly agricultural with 58% of the most productive agricultural land in England and Wales found here.

So I hope you see that flood risk is an important risk to England and Wales - not only to our population but also to our agriculture and industry.

If anybody has any questions about these flood events - I may be able to help find answers.

Al
 
What i like about the UK has been the team spirit. People helping people goes a long way to getting things done. My congrats to all those who have done work with a sense of pride and selflessness. Now if you can only get time to dry out some now! :sweat:
 
My heart goes out to all of those affected. Until reading here I had no idea how many were threatened.

I'm looking for hi-res maps online in jpg, tif, png or even gif that show elevations of the entire area (or sub regions, if nothing else). I've been interested in flooding in this area for some time and I've never really found anything graphic on the subject.

I thought maybe with all of the current interest in this perhaps someone may have run across some good maps in their reading.

No flash or interactive, please. TIA.
 
That is quite a request. The Environment Agency 'Flood Map' can be accessed via our website, however, access to the base data in the form of image files is not possible online. The contour maps we use are the Ordnance Survey OS MasterMap which is digital.
Note that elevation isn't the only factor regarding whether a location is at risk from flooding though.

I know that the FRM&DM (Flood Risk Mapping & Data Management) in the flooded regions are extremely busy at the moment as you might well imagine. I am not sure of the procedure for information requests from outside England & Wales. Please email/pm me if you'd like me to find out.

Al
 
Thanks for the info -- I'll keep sniffing around. I've been putting together a digital atlas composed of image files (for personal use only) for 6-7 years and while it's well over 28,000 files, I've just never run across any graphic flood info for your region. It's only a matter of time.
 
...Note that elevation isn't the only factor regarding whether a location is at risk from flooding though....
We in New Orleans are also threatened with flooding from time to time that is exacerbated by factors other than just elevation. Storm surge and prevailing winds coupled with the shape of our coastline may funnel the water into flood levels that destroy property in some areas while leaving some places at the same elevation untouched.
 
Size15's. I have a question. How does flood insurance work in the UK. Here in the US it's expensive. There are some programs where the federal government helps provide subsidized insurance. If you can't get into those programs then you get into what is called the surplus market where the insurers who sell coverage do so at higher rates and in general less state oversight.

Normally in the US things such as rates and coverages are somewhat regulated by state. They set ranges that companies can charge based on the class a person or business falls into. When insurers pull out of markets (like in Florida or Louisiana) then the need for those surplus markets become critical and the federal govt sometimes tries to step in and help people get coverage.

It's all wwwwaayyyy more complicated than that but I just wondered in general how flood insurance is handled int he UK. It's obviously going to be important to a lot of folks right now.
 
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