Safe Speed Forums

MORE RAIN ANYONE

Looks pretty bad in Cumbria -hope those posters from there are OK.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21298

OK here, by good judgement.

Mole is near Cockermouth though!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I'm OK, ta. Mind you, I don't have to go far from home before I get very wet! As Ernest said, Cockermouth is utterly devastated. Mrs Mole "hydraulicked" her car's engine driving through a flood the other day and has completely trashed it. I did the same in my car yesterday taking the kids to school, but fortunately, it seems to have survived - I took the plugs out, pumped the water out and put them back in and it seems fine (I have an interesting papier mache scuplture where my air filter used to be though)! When I got there I found out they'd closed it anyway! The phones are on and off at present but the internet seems to be holding up. Basically, we're a lot luckier than most!

If it gets any worse, please can I borrow your Avatar Ernest?!

Did you see the LDNPA are taking over sole duties of sped enforcement on Windermere?
Maybe Steve will volunteer his professional (!) services?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Glad to hear you're both ok - some of the posts elsewhere sounded horrific .From what I've read it looks like diving gear would be more appropriate than wellies .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

One of the problems is the force of the water.
Because it is running off saturated land, htere is no slowing of the water, and it is moving a great deal of debris with it, which is ending up in drains and gullies, storing up trouble for future (perhaps less persistent) rains.

The water slewing down some lanes is strong enough to sweep your feet from under you!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

err, what happens to wild life in these instances? Don't think I'm not interested in the human element, but if you're a water vole or insects or anything that lives in the ground, do they get washed away, or are they able to cling on to something and survive? When the water subsides is there fish in odd places or do they stay in their little bit of the river and stay low? Maybe this is how ponds get stocked with water life.

People don't realise that it only takes 6 inches or so of fast flowing water to knock you over!

And once you are down you are completely helpless!



Not just wildlife but livestock too!

The answer is that they die in VAST numbers!

So on top of all the other things to deal with is the issue of hundreds (Thousands!?) of tons of dead sheep, Pigs, Cows etc to deal with before the rotting carcases contaminate the drinking water supplies!

Given the scale and severity of these floods I am amazed (and relieved) that more lives have not been lost! (Though there is time yet )

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

After the last floods in Carlisle, they found somebody's goldfish in a puddle in the middle of Carlisle United's football pitch!!
What is more, they managed to trace the owner and return the goldfish to them!

One household were not so lucky, and they ended up with a dead cow in their lounge! How do you get a dead COW out of the house?

Voles etc. are usually in slower moving streams, in holes, where they can shelter - but in these conditions it's probably not enough.

Our local radio station has been broadcasting offers of dry fields in which to put livestock from flooded areas, and hotels and holiday parks have been offering emergency accommodation.

Worst thing is the sewage which ends up mixed in with the flood water - at least Cockermouth is not such a large town! I had to go to Carlisle after their floods, and the whole area was covered in a brown smelly sludge!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

"If it had been dug, then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess now." - And maybe it would be worse. Are there any independent studies of the effect, in these circumstances, of dredging the river ?

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Think that by looking into the effects of people paving over gardens those in the know have admitted that ,JUST PERHAPS ,it's not a good idea to build everywhere -especially the areas where water would flow naturally -though in the rush( nay mad panic) to provide extra housing ( since we have a dire shortage ,perhaps due to the Gov'ts IMMIGRATION POLICY) .But of course it'll be global warming to blame -could this Government ever get it wrong -more chance of some ancient King ADMITTING that he could not hold back the tide .Look at it this way -years ago , we had a set amount of rain ( more in certain years ,less others) . The excess had chunks of meadow /grassland etc to flood .Now a lot of that land has been built on /concreted over -so where's the water to go , diverted by the various storm water drainage schemes - it's not effluent -so it goes straight into rivers etc -and when the water is too much for the river bed to handle -it spills over .
But then this lot of idiots can't get the idea of saving for a rainy day in economic terms( in good years we save/put aside so that in bad years we have some savings to fall back on ) -so what hope have they got of coping with nature .
Never mind -come election time ,old Gordo is going to find out that a few inches of Gatso /excessive survellance will wash his hopes of a second term out to sea .And in political terms - theres no RNLI in a political storm .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

As you say. The problem with improving flow in one stretch of river is that the water only ends up further downstream in a much bigger "Chunk"

The logical conclusion of a "Comprehensive river/flood management scheme" is something like the LA River!

See http://seriss.com/people/erco/fovicks/

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

In fairness, this flood went right down the high street - which has been there for several hundred years. I don't know about dredging the river, but perhaps an alternative (additional) path for the water to take might be useful. Trouble is, even with global warming, I'd be surprised if we saw another one in a hundred years or more. That's far longer than any government is going to think ahead!

Some of the flooding is caused and exacerbated by poor maintenance of drainage. My road is a prime example. If the drains are cleared then even in the heaviest rain there is only a foot wide stream running along the verge. If they don't bother (as they haven't recently) then the whole road floods across its entire width. It's like that now. At the bottom where it is all pooling then the road is completely blocked all because the council can't keep up a sensible maintenance schedule.

Highway maintenance have just turned up and closed the road off further down.

I don't thing ANY of the rivers need dredging now!

Our local river has several large boulders gone missing!

More rain this morning and this afternoon. Several road closures, but not my way home... yet!
However, the Barrow hospital canceled my wife's appointment for this afternoon - just as well because the A592 Newby Bridge road was shut!

Some interesting statistics from the BBC - During last week, 39mm (1.52in) fell on Monday - that is, during the 24 hours beginning at 9am on Monday, 61mm (2.39in) on Tuesday, 143mm (5.61in) on Wednesday, and 247mm (9.71in) on Thursday.
The prolonged steady downpour which triggered the flooding began at 20.00 on Wednesday and ended, 34 hours later, at 06.00 on Friday. In that relatively brief time, it deposited a total of 378mm (14.87in) (it takes eight months for that much rain to fall in London).

During that deluge, the peak 24-hour rainfall was 316mm (12.46in).

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!