Earlier this year a Dutch woman visited the headquarters of her country's national weather agency and put a storm name suggestion in the appropriate box. It was her own name - Babet and that's what this current event is called - Storm Babet.
Our house is on a hillside so we can never be properly flooded. It has rained all day and it is still raining now as bedtime approaches. Sometimes the rain has battered down in a biblical manner as if we had accidentally attracted the wrath of Almighty God and I watched as a stream surged down our road on its way to Endcliffe Park at the bottom of the hill. Already feeling "under the weather" if you will excuse the pun, I didn't venture outside all day.
The River Porter flows through Endcliffe Park, draining water from the nearby hills. Usually, it is nothing more than a gentle stream where small children paddle in the summertime but today is was a raging torrent. Its overlapping waters surrounded the statue of Queen Victoria and covered the main field. Even Phoebe's favourite children's play area was under water.
Though our house could never be flooded because of the geography of our area, we have experienced a leak in the corner of our kitchen. The rain water has found its way between the kitchen's sloped roof and the joint with next door's wall. We had the same problem a few years back and if we get a dry spell in the next few weeks I will be up on that roof again with more waterproof sealant.
Of course our small rain-related issue is as nothing compared with the upset that is caused when a house is truly flooded and in the past thirty hours numerous homes across this kingdom have had to be evacuated because of rising flood waters.
If your house is invaded by muddy flood water you know that you are in for weeks or months of associated hassle. The clean-up, replacement of plaster and electric wiring, throwing carpets out and finding somewhere else to live for the duration. You might also have to deal with an awkward insurance company if indeed you have sensibly taken out home insurance.
Finally, I ought to mention in passing that Storm Babet has taken at least three British lives in the past two days. Very sad indeed.
Stay safe and hope the water doesn't erode the hill and slide the house down to a new address.
ReplyDeleteI am just about to go to bed so I hope your mischievous idea doesn't result in a nightmare!
DeleteWere the millions of pounds spent on local flood defences effective? Home flooding must be truly awful. People are still dealing with the aftermath of local flooding here two years after the event.
ReplyDeleteIn some parts of the country, expensive flood defences have certainly done their job.
Delete"Its overlapping waters" - novel (to me at least) usage of "overlapping."
ReplyDeleteIt's a good word and describes exactly what happens when a river rises higher than its containing banks.
Delete[School]masterfully dealt with! Unhelpful interjection from the third row quashed!
DeleteStill, more conventional usage in my opinion would be "lapping-over" or "overflowing."
I do acknowledge some GMH-type creativity (grieving/unleaving, etc).
That's too much water for comfort. Most places cannot handle that much rain. Stay dry! Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteI guess that flooding has always happened. It is nothing new.
DeleteYou may recall the flooding in NS in July - what you are seeing now sounds eerily similar to that. It is sad about the lives lost - that, too, echoes our experience here. The power of water is terrifying to me, probably because I am a weak swimmer. I will never drive through a flooded road; that's how the four people here lost their lives, swept away in a matter of seconds. I feel for the families of those who died.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot argue with inanimate flood water.
DeleteWe have fires and floods here. Both, obviously, are terrible but I think floods leave more damage behind. All that smelly mud and destruction.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that we have never experienced such a thing.
DeleteBack in the early 70s we lived in Brisbane, Queensland and some parts of the city were prone to annual flooding, but not our suburb thank goodness. It has made me wary of such things and if I were to ever buy a house I would make sure it isn't in a flood-prone area. Also on the "high" side of any road.
ReplyDeleteI have seen film footage of some of the terrible flooding that Brisbane has experienced in recent times.
DeleteFlooding in the country is becoming quite a problem for those who live near rivers. The ghastly mess people have to clean up after water has swept through a house must be horrible. Glad you are safe up the hill. Peered down into the basement this morning and we are still safe. Funnily enough looking at Hebden Bridge as the water rushed through the bridges, the ducks were quite happily pottering around in the water.
ReplyDeleteAt present it seems that the flood defences in the Calder Valley have held up well.
DeleteWe have got off very lightly here in Hertfordshire, though the heavy rain a couple of days ago deposited over an inch of water in the bucket beside my chair! We have a similar problem to yours by the sounds of it. Several roofers have come and looked but not come back with a quote.....the job is too small I guess. The local River Lea at the bottom of the hill was high yesterday, but still where it should be!!
ReplyDeleteHertforshire folk must be paragons of virtue for they have not attracted God's wrath this time round.
DeleteDid you ever sort out that other damp patch you had? I imagine this weather would have probably given it a new lease of life.
ReplyDeleteI just went to look at that area JayCee and it seems dry. I think it has healed itself!
DeleteThey even had flooding at Faro airport in the Algarve.
ReplyDeleteThe farmers of southern Portugal are probably happy about the rain.
DeleteI do hope you keep dry and warm. No playtime for Phoebe today and it will take some time before the land dries off enough for the play area to be used again.
ReplyDeleteThe mud will need to be jetwashed away.
DeleteIts been wet and windy down here in the comfortable south of Germany, but further up north the storm has caused considerable damage, and one woman died when a tree broke down on her car.
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law in Ripon lives close to the river Ure, but far enough (I hope) for her garden and house not to be flooded. At nearly 90 and with quite a few health issues, it would be very hard for her if she had to relocate.
Yes. Something like that might be the straw that could break the camel's back.
DeleteThat statue is saying, "WE ARE NOT AMUSED."
ReplyDeleteWhy are you under the weather? Still not feeling up to snuff after your recent encounter with those harsh antibiotics?
Just congestion and a temperature. I took a lateral flow test today and thankfully it was negative.
DeleteMy daughter was heading to Yorkshire yesterday to be a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding today. Her train got stopped at Grantham as the route beyond was flooded. Another train promised to take her to Sheffield, so she boarded that only to be turfed off at Nottingham for the same reason. Stuck in Nottingham for 5 hours (while she bought a Megabus ticket and waited, but the bus was also cancelled), she managed eventually to get a taxi to take her to Yorkshire for the princely sum of £190, paying for 4 others to travel with her for free, as they were all students. It took her 12 hours in all to get from London to Leeds.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that Kay (i.e. Hyacinth) made it and it was amazingly kind of her to help those penniless students out!
DeleteStay safe. After lucking out in the last couple of homes that the 100 year flood didn't happen while I owned them, this one is on top of a very tall hill. If polar ice caps melt, I will have ocean view property.
ReplyDeleteChoosing homes should certainly involve consideration of flood risks.
DeleteWell, I am glad your house is on a hill. Of course we get rains like that with our tropical storms and hurricanes and it can be crazy! Stay tucked up and safe.
ReplyDeleteI am as dry as a Greek donkey in a barn.
DeleteIf you tire of the rain, just end any excess to Iowa.
ReplyDeleteI might even Send it if I can locate a transatlantic tanker.
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