Stopping the floods - time to think out of the box
Does anyone else believe that no matter how much money they throw at flood prevention, it will never be enough. Flooding has occurred in many different areas in the past and we cannot hold back all the water on the hillsides to allow sufficient time for
it to disperse downstream.
Is it not time to think outside the box?
My suggestion is to stop the rain falling on the land in the first place. This could be achieved by seeding the clouds way out at sea causing the excess rain to fall before reaching land.
Cloud seeding is not science fiction and has been tried before. It was reportedly used before the 2008 Beijing Olympics to ensure that the opening and closing ceremonies were not affected by rain
Comments
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I don't know what the answer is but building defenses to just shove it further down stream isn't it. We should never have been allowed to build homes on flood planes, in my town 45 years ago they started building a big housing development, the old folk said "its doomed, when we get a big rain it'll flood, it always has" it took 23 years for it to happen, but it did happen. The majority of the housing estate was flooded to 4ft up the walls of the houses. It took 6 - 12 months for these folk to get back into their houses. There wasn't enough trades to do all the work, there wasn't enough housing for folk to stay in, it was awful for those affected. My heart goes out to those who have been flooded this time, sadly it will happen again.
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you can't stop Mother Nature, and stopping the water at one point only causes a problem elsewhere , stop building on flood planes ,or if they do ,they should build in some sort of system to divert the excess water away from the area ,
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There was a person from the environment agency this morning saying that flooding can never be eliminated ,and its time buildings were made flood resistant with flooring and walls able to withstand water (solid) and electric sockets installed higher
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I have to agree that throwing money at reinforcing flood barriers will never stop flooding if there is enough rain, and there certainly has been lately. Physical barriers just push the problem onto another part/place, it doesn't solve the problem. Building
on flood plains and water meadows was always a daft idea (but not if you consider yourself very clever and similar to Canute
). I'm sorry I don't know the answer for those who are, what now appears to be routinely, affected but lets try the very basic
stuff like not building on flood plains in the future. The Lake District is full of lakes because of the terrain and the prevailling weather. Living in a dry county I can tell you we had and still do have (in some places) water meadows that flood regularly,
so if you are somewhere that gets lots of rain they must be needed too. Nature is in control not humans however much we think we can rule her.My heart goes out to those affected, for the inconvenience and heartache at the moment; future insuring/sale of their properties and some sort of solution. I wish I had a magic wand.
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We must learn to live with excess water, just as we must with other extreme conditions. I visited a coastal town a couple of years ago where the sea had a habit of invading on occasion. The ground floors are tiled throughout, without electricity, and everything
in them is moveable. They open their doors to let the sea in if it floods, taking valuables to the floors above. It’s left like that until the water has receded again. No insurance for anything on the ground floor.Perhaps we should be planning London that way, and building trains in the air rather than underground?
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We must learn to live with excess water, just as we must with other extreme conditions. I visited a coastal town a couple of years ago where the sea had a habit of invading on occasion. The ground floors are tiled throughout, without electricity, and everything
in them is moveable. They open their doors to let the sea in if it floods, taking valuables to the floors above. It’s left like that until the water has receded again. No insurance for anything on the ground floor.Perhaps we should be planning London that way, and building trains in the air rather than underground?
Write your comments here...Rogher,sore point up here in Yorkshire is "London".if you can get a look at the front page of yesterday's Yorkshire Post.
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The floods that happened in Somerset in 2014 were completely ignored by the powers that be till people were literally up to their necks in water. Rising water levels were reported locally but it took weeks for anyone to actually come here and look at the reality. Then it took many many months for plans to be drawn up to improve the situation in the future. Unfortunately there are many areas on flood plains and all will suffer from time to time. Often the main reason for letting certain areas flood is to prevent damage to larger towns, down here Bridgwater was the town that took precedent. High tides, exceptional rain fall combine to create the worst scenario. Because of the El Nino effect this year we've got warmer weather, had it been cold weather we might have had rain falling as snow with a gradual thaw with some possible flooding instead of the awful deluge we've experienced. People down here have had to wait a year in some cases to get back into their homes. I feel very sorry for all the displaced folks in the north. It looks as though we're stuck with this weather till the El Nino "effect" moves away.
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We must learn to live with excess water, just as we must with other extreme conditions. I visited a coastal town a couple of years ago where the sea had a habit of invading on occasion. The ground floors are tiled throughout, without electricity, and everything
in them is moveable. They open their doors to let the sea in if it floods, taking valuables to the floors above. It’s left like that until the water has receded again. No insurance for anything on the ground floor.Perhaps we should be planning London that way, and building trains in the air rather than underground?
Write your comments here...Rogher,sore point up here in Yorkshire is "London".if you can get a look at the front page of yesterday's Yorkshire Post.
The discussion will be stopped if we bring politics into it.
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York as flooded for many years, why isn't there a flood barrier same as London? or why is it that London can have money spent stopping it flooding and the rest of the U.K. Have to suffer? It's pathetic. Holland used to flood but it is rare that we hear anything about Holland flooding. They spent money digging dykes so that they guided the water away from residential areas.
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York does have flood barriers, one of the issues was that the one controlling the Foss broke down and had to be left open. Replacement part was airlifted in yesterday by a Chinook. However, the flood defences in York are inadequate and have been for decades.
It needs more environmental work doing much further upstream so that less water actually makes it into the Ouse. Too late by the time it reaches York. Thames barrier deals with tidal surges not rainfall.0 -
Doesn't matter whether it is to stop water going up Ro down the river a flood barrier is there to control water.
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Possibly, I am no expert. My stance is similar to yours though, not enough money spent in certain areas, not a priority, second class citizens, who cares about certain places, blah, blah blah!
What we need is a northern Wat Tyler!
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Possibly, I am no expert. My stance is similar to yours though, not enough money spent in certain areas, not a priority, second class citizens, who cares about certain places, blah, blah blah!
What we need is a northern Wat Tyler!
Write your comments here...You have only got to look how much is being spent on the cross rail project, and they have a rail line that runs across the top of London Which is not used to full capacity.
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To keep this non political, I see ideas are being put forward to help householders survive the floods like raising electrical points, using waterproof plaster and laying solid floors rather than suspended wood. Drying out houses and having to remove plaster
etc takes months.0 -
Sadly, I think that all the work done to refurbish will merely put back what was already there without any thought for the possibility of a repeat. Hopefully I’m wrong but, as this is largely at the expense of all our insurance premiums, I would dearly like
to see that money being spent in a way that mitigates the impact of any reoccurrence.0 -
There is quite a big "flood refurbishment" strategy on the gov.uk site and whether homes should be restored new for old or for resilience. Sounds as though the "resillience" bit will become more important, so things are now going that way.
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Outside the box? Building on floodplains has become almost neccessary in some places as there are no aternative places to build - so build houses that will rise with the flood water.
Last year in Yalding (Kent) there were static caravans that did exactly that as they had been flooded before. The owners designed large polystyrene tpye pontoons under the caravans. Worked a treat. Still messy when the waters receded, but thier homes were
saved.0 -
I hope all the reservoirs are to capacity now. It would be unfortunate to face drought in the Summer after this.
Write your comments here...poetic justice if they run out of Adam'sAle in London and the SE.Happen we could sell them some of our spare -at the reight money mind!
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Pontoons have been fitted to some mobile homes on the banks of the River Seven at Evesham after the big floods,
But then it has been a problem with flooding in York for centuries, and millions spent to try to improve the defences,and if the local agencies had got there act together in the past,there would have been a backup plan to cover the failure of the pumps on the Foss barrier ,which has caused most of the problem this time,
Ps our water comes from chalk aquifers
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Outside the box? Building on floodplains has become almost neccessary in some places as there are no aternative places to build - so build houses that will rise with the flood water.
Last year in Yalding (Kent) there were static caravans that did exactly that as they had been flooded before. The owners designed large polystyrene tpye pontoons under the caravans. Worked a treat. Still messy when the waters receded, but thier homes were
saved.Write your comments here...oh the delights of the SE! Give me wide open spaces, a proper garden to call my own and some solitude! Agree about flood plains though!
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The Romans and Medieval English were brighter than today's architects and planners. In 2007 we drove home in the dry along the Fosse Way when all around was flooded in the Cotswolds! And how often do you see a church or Cathedral on an island surrounded
by flood water? Admittedly there are a few million more to protect nowadays.21st Century Man? Capable of flying to moon and back, blasting someone to smithereens from 2000 miles away, but can't protect our own homes from flooding!
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So - if we, as a nation, cannot prevent flooding on the scale recently seen may we know the name(s) of those who deemed the currently ineffective levels of protection to be sufficient.
I understand that committees in the past have pontificated on the necessary levels. What thick idiots they were!
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The majority of "committees" in the past involved in flood defence, have said that it is not possible to predict, with our ever changing weather patterns to accurately plan where to improve protection against flooding, and areas most at risk are prioritised,
with the the information supplied by environment agency and local professionals, it was stated on an interview a couple of days ago, that properties will have be made flood resistant in the future as flood protection in one area normally later just moves the
problem elsewhere0 -
It's a matter of balance. Any defensive scheme is based on probability/cost ratio. Chuck enough cash at it and you can have a bulletproof system but is that realistic and are we prepared to pay for something that may never be needed? Recent rainfall has
been unprecedented. The question is do we or should we plan for anticipated or unprecedented.0
