Orgasmic Farmer Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 My dad, bless him, has his property marked on various insurance and EA maps as a flood risk. It's because he's not 100 yards from the Wye. What the EA and their little friends fail to look at on the OS map is the fact that he's 230 feet above the river! Every year it's the same damned argument with the insurance company... According to that map linked above the middle of our farm is in extreme flood risk. This despite being 300 vertical feet above the river on a steep hill with no streams anywhere near the steading. It is the only property in the valley which appears to be shown at risk. Even the mills next to the river get away without any risk! I wonder if the insurance company are aware of this "printing error". To me it looks like someone spilt some coffee on a map and it was photocopied! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Well, it's all gone to Rodent poo here The Tone is about to breach the flood wall . There are two big surges coming down the Tone. The villages South of the Parrett are being evacuated - police chopper with a megaphone. Taunton is flooding, Wellington is flooding. Pretty much every road between the M5 and Somerton is blocked or becoming blocked. The Sowey is looking dodgy and the KSG is now over a mile wide. The council are issue 2 sandbags to each household. We are fast becoming an island again The 4x4 Response are running themselves ragged - well done lads. whilst the fire service are getting kit nicked and some unpleasant chap is stealing heating oil from the abandoned properties Householders in the 'dry' villages are taking in folk who have nowhere to go High tides Friday - rain surges due until then and for the weekend we get a huge storm And I'm stuck at home incapacitated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Oh dear, sorry to hear of your predicament. We have some heavy rain at Gatwick this afternoon, I'll have to wait to find out what the roads are like on my way home later, but I doubt it will be anything like you have. Do two sandbags offer any great protection? I don't know how large a sandbag is, but given that most homes have two doors, does one bag across a doorway help much? To hear of thieving scum taking advantage of these situations is an utter disgrace! Stealing from empty homes is one thing, but from the services that are trying to help save lives is beyond belief. I hope something unfortunate happens to these individuals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 You need five sandbags to block a door to 10" but it will seep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacr2man Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Army to be called with specialist vehicles, the best army specialist vehicle could be the Alvis Stalwart, where are the owners of these swimable delivery trucks surely if LR rescue clubs an help these owners can too? The stolly owners club contacted the CCU about 4 or 5 days ago , dont thnk they have heard anything back yet !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troddenmasses Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 This clip kind of demonstrates your original post. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26090057 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Wellington is flooding.News to me, and I'm in Wellington! The A38 between here and Taunton was closed by flooding yesterday, but that's normal whenever it rains heavily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacr2man Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I think its time for a different approach , as no matter what you are not going to stop the levels flooding . The guy with the house he built himself has the right idea , building a dam wall round the property.. With villages without a stream or other water course going thru build a concrete wall right round , leaving a gap for roads in and out , then when flooding is expected have portable "gates" that can be put in place like in a lock. That way you can protect the property and inhabitants . When i lived in australia a particularly bad flood event , caused major damage to a town . The couldnt move the river , so the government gave grants to pay for people to lift the houses on a steel frame above the maximum flood level . worked a treat a couple of years later when the flood came thru again . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 One of my friends who lived in Upper Beeding, a particularly flood prone area on the Sussex Coast, after three consecutive years of flooding, and with some help from the Insurance, filled the voids under the floors (which needed replacing anyway) with concrete (so water would not seep up through the floor). He bought a kit which consisted of U shaped channel which you fix to the outside of the door (and window) frames then rigid (Fibreglass IIRC) panels which slotted into the channel. The panels were curved outwards so the water pressure increased the pressure on the side seals as they flexed. Each panel had rubber seals on the edges so they sealed against one another. You just insert the number required to be higher than the water level. The next year which was even worse, he showed me photos of the house with water almost a foot above the window ledges and about 4 feet deep at the door - but inside was bone dry. The insurers even agreed cover again seeing how effective it was. He had a step ladder inside the front door to climb over the panels and get into an inflatable dingy to go to work. I think if I lived in a flood-prone area, this is what I'd do - but pump in the concrete under the floorboards. The panels and channel would be easy to make. It certainly beat sand-bags as the seepage was minimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Those panels for doorways is exactly what every doorway in Venice has. Low tech, simple and effective. I'd be inclined to have diesel powered water pumps to deal with any water that got through, too - I figured that in our last house (a 1930 semi), if flooding became a significant risk, I'd block the vent bricks for the floor cavity and have a removable board to stick a hose down for the pump, leaving the pump out in the porch for ventilation. It looks in the news like someone else had similar ideas but had the pump indoors - the parents are in hospital but their little boy died of CO poisoning. The problem of damp seeping through stone or brick remains, though, when the flood is persistent like these are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Did you see the house on the levels where the owner has built a dam around it? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26083171 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigelw Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 My greatest sympathies go out to all that are struggling in these times of desperation. My biggest concern is not that they are struggling to find a way t get rid of the water, but that they are still looking to develop land in known flood ris areas. That little rock aint so big you know!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 It's very small, Nige, about half the area of France, but with a higher population. But any discussion about reducing immigration is viewed as racist by the lefties and the media (same thing, really), so UKIP are cast as Nazis and the Tories, who are making hollow platitudes to gain UKIP votes aren't really going to do anything about it. We really need serious population control in the UK to reduce the housing shortage, not to build more houses. But people will whine about human rights and continue to behave irresponsibly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat_pending Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 It's very small, Nige, about half the area of France, but with a higher population. But any discussion about reducing immigration is viewed as racist by the lefties and the media (same thing, really), so UKIP are cast as Nazis and the Tories, who are making hollow platitudes to gain UKIP votes aren't really going to do anything about it. We really need serious population control in the UK to reduce the housing shortage, not to build more houses. But people will whine about human rights and continue to behave irresponsibly... +1 We can't keep building over everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heath robinson Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I have a little thought to put in peoples minds, so that if things develop as I'm thinking they might, then it's not just me who's eyes are open, if you catch my drift. I'll have to do a little checking, as I want to be sure of my facts about this, but it does seem that the local MP was kept in the dark about the state of things by Whitehall, and that although this has been a problem for a few years, the dredging was almost willfully ignored. The disturbing thought goes like this - Much of the levels is becoming uninsurable, much of the farmland has become polluted due to this flood, and there are huge shale gas deposits under the levels too. I really hope that this won't be the case, but I think we may find land being bought up at rock-bottom rates from farmers who can't afford to do anything else, and then the spectre of fracking raising it's ugly head. It is indisputable that the relevant authorities knew about the state of the drainage, and that at some stage, someone conciously made a decision not to get the situation rectified. It's also indisputable that the fracking industry has a strong hold over our government - you only have to look at how the Greater Manchester Police have been acting essentially as hired security for the Barton Moss drilling site, at a cost of hundreds of thousands to the taxpayer. I'm sorry if that's a bit much, I generally try to steer well clear of discussing politics etc, but this is both blatant and sickening, and far too coincidental, and I really don't want to see such a beautiful bit of my home destroyed for greed. As I said, I really hope I'm wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean f Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Can't really see why there would be any issue with fracking, there would be nothing to gain by buying the land owners out, in the UK all oil and gas is state owned then license d out to produce, land owner gets nothing from gas, all they might get is some rent if drilling or production actually takes place on there land. Don't want to get to political but no real problems occure with fracking anyway IF DONE PROPERLY, UK legislation for drilling is very tight after several instances went wrong (look up Ocean Odessy), most cases in the USA where there are reported issues either had issues with water contamination long before fracking started or are traced back to a bodged drilling job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heath robinson Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I'll have to agree to differ over whether fracking is safe or not, but, having done a bit more research, I'll readily agree with you about it not being the reason for allowing this to happen. Suffice to say I've found two articles that clearly lay out how and why this has happened, with cross-referencable sources. The first is this article in the Telegraph, and the second is from the tinfoil-hat brigade, but if you ignore the first bit, the bit about EU and UN policy is easily referencable, and right. It's here. and the latter part is well worth a read. However, I think it's safe to say that the first few unreferenced tinfoil-hat paragraphs are where the idea of fracking having a hand in it came from, so skip over that and have a squint at the cross-referencable bit. It's incredibly galling to think that this isn't even government incompetance, it looks convinvingly like it's policy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean f Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 How that article I can agree with, the levels are basically an "unnatural" landscape, they were created by man and need to be actively managed to remain in existence. Lack of management will see them revert to there natural state of a huge swamp with islands in it. Whether this is ultimately desirable is political but it would end the existence of the area as it exists now, with massive disruption to any people or businesses there at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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