Flooding - County on its knees

[Lance Morgan]

It never ceases to amaze me how a bit of adverse weather such as a few days heavy rainfall or snow brings this country to a grinding halt.
Take lincolnshire where I live. Severe weather warnings, accidents on the roads, schools shut, people can't get to work, rivers burst their banks, homes flooded, emergency services struggling to cope.
Every time its the same - Why?

[glsammy]

Yep, where I Live, I'm surrounded by low lying villages, all of which are flooded, and worse is expected. We can't get out to our usual places, without massive detours. This happens around here every 10 years or so, this year is particularly bad.
It's our unpredictable weather; how can the councils expect to cope, after all it's never rained in June before. To be fair, the rainfall has been extremely severe and continuous. Any system will struggle to cope with the volume that has fallen here recently. Apparently we've just had the worse days rainfall in 50 years, with plenty more to come.

[Lance Morgan]

Yes I appreciate that some low lying areas will be particularly vulnerable but this seems to be an more and more of an annual event everytime we get a bit of 'weather'.
Why don't local councils plan for this and what about the Environment Agency, they seem to spend millions on new anti flood schemes which don't appear to improve anything. They're very good at flood warnings though.

Is it because old Flood meadows are drained and or developed for housing? The drains around us are never cleaned out and are blocked. Rivers are swollen because of weirs which are permanently closed. Banks are neglected and damaged and then burst.
Anyway it seems that the forecast is for more of the same. Batten down the hatches lads.

[Tormentil]

Look on the brightside. Ark building is booming.

[Kymba]

Give it a week of brilliant sunshine and hot weather and they will be telling us we have a water shortage and a Hosepipe ban!!!

[demicav]

Originally Posted by Lance Morgan

It never ceases to amaze me how a bit of adverse weather such as a few days heavy rainfall or snow brings this country to a grinding halt.
Take lincolnshire where I live. Severe weather warnings, accidents on the roads, schools shut, people can't get to work, rivers burst their banks, homes flooded, emergency services struggling to cope.
Every time its the same - Why?

I do sometimes wonder this myself. The country seems unable to cope in the most extreme weather. In between is ok but very hot or very wet is a no no .

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Lance Morgan

It never ceases to amaze me how a bit of adverse weather such as a few days heavy rainfall or snow brings this country to a grinding halt.

Compared to which other Country ?

Extreme conditions are only manageable if systems are designed and built to manage them, this would mean for instance that storm drains would have to be built two, three or four times as large as would be required for the normal range of rainfall. To build that higher level of infrastructure would incur massive financial and environmental costs, so storm drains are built to cope with a 'normal' range and not an exceptional range.

Climate change will alter what those ranges are, if warming continues then the frequency of extreme events will increase, whether as a society we will choose to enhance infrastructure or simply meet the costs of 'mopping up' is a political question because it is linked to what levels of taxation we are prepared to accept. However I'm not certain that any other Country with comparable problems is actually doing any better than the UK. And building on flood plains, canalising rivers and degrading water stores is a global problem.

CM

[Lance Morgan]

Certainly not compared to third world countries where sadly we most often see disasters caused by flooding. I have not seen reports of comparible flooding in the rest of Europe today. I/we pay enough in taxes. If this is the taste of things to come then maybe the infrastructure should be improved and built to prevent the sort damage we're seeing. This is going to cost us all one way or another clean up and repair and insurance premiums are going to sky rocket. It must be costing millions of pounds.

Just watched the news and now they're airlifting people from buildings with sea kings. Two people have lost their lives, one trying to unblock a drain. All for a few days rain. What next?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

Compared to which other Country ?

Extreme conditions are only manageable if systems are designed and built to manage them, this would mean for instance that storm drains would have to be built two, three or four times as large as would be required for the normal range of rainfall. To build that higher level of infrastructure would incur massive financial and environmental costs, so storm drains are built to cope with a 'normal' range and not an exceptional range.

Climate change will alter what those ranges are, if warming continues then the frequency of extreme events will increase, whether as a society we will choose to enhance infrastructure or simply meet the costs of 'mopping up' is a political question because it is linked to what levels of taxation we are prepared to accept. However I'm not certain that any other Country with comparable problems is actually doing any better than the UK. And building on flood plains, canalising rivers and degrading water stores is a global problem.

CM

thats probably true of rain - but look at the way the country grinds to a halt when theres a couple of inches of snow - canada and northern usa , and scandanavia , russia etc regularly get far more than that and cope without the mass hysteria which grips our road network everytime theres more than a few flakes

[Kymba]

Did you see the news tonight.. I was Gob smacked.. The news presenter was on a bridge going over a motorway in Yorkshire... The water on the motorway was above the car wheels and people were still trying to drive!!!
Have they No sense at all....then they will complain because their cars are wrecked and ruined!!! or they get stuck and stranded!!