Floods

I have had a friend staying for a few days and not been in a position to post. On Thursday afternoon we called in at Marks and Spencers at Kingston Park (Newcastle, for those of you who don't know). Whilst we were there my daughter in law, her mother, and my twenty day old grand-daughter turned up; we chatted briefly and then went our separate ways, in our case going upstairs to the baby department. As we came out of the lift the heavens opened and the noise on the roof was appalling. We looked around, bought some things, and then went to the escalator to go down. That was when we discovered that the staff were not letting us go downstairs - it was flooded. It was also not possible for the people downstairs to leave as it was throwing it down. The staff were helping customers upstairs.

M and S staff were excellent - extremely helpful. We were given tea and coffee and sat it out. To be honest, it was quite sociable for me: my daughter in law and her family came up, a couple I know, and an old lady from our village. The staff were careful to check that my daughter in law didn't need anything for the baby.

Eventually the rain eased off and we were all helped downstairs - carefully avoiding any water. The journey home took rather a long time as we had to keep changing our route to avoid the floods.

My son's journey home from the office took double the time, and when my son-in-law went to fetch my grandson from nursery (a ten minute max journey), it took him two hours.

The following day there was hardly any sign of the rain and floods - everything had drained away. I feel so sorry, though, for those whose homes were flooded.

Well done that caretaker! It really has been a trial for so many people x

My son and his family live in the North East and have been badly affected by the floods/storms. At my son's workplace, the roof collapsed and caused a massive amount of damage. My poor DIL was stranded on the way home from work. At their home, the gutters couldn't cope with the torrents of water, which found their way down the flue into the central heating boiler, which will now have to be replaced. The heroic caretaker at my GS's school baled, mopped and pumped and kept the school open! When my GS was collected after his swimming lesson, the carpark was flooded and his dad had to drive up a hill to escape. Bless my GS - he was so excited because a swan was swimming alongside the car!

Very funny yesterday afternoon - son's girlfriend is at uni in Newcastle, lives in Manchester. She was returning to Manchester with 6 tickets for the Stone Roses reunion concert here in Manchester, but was stuck up there, not knowing if her train tickets would get her here due to the floods. Mobile phones were in meltdown, trying to find ways of getting her here. 'Sod whether she can get here - just get the tickets on a coach' said one friend! She managed it by coach and train in the end, and was carried aloft by her cheering mates when she alighted at the bus station.

Can relate to the weather tales, living in the North East as I do! It took me 4 hours to get home along the A1 with a last minute detour to try to get out of the north-bound gridlock. Water everywhere, roads blocked off and cars abandoned. Fortunately we live on the side of a hill and so the water races past down to the river - hope it's not washing away the foundations tho'

Seeing the local news on Friday showing the extent of the damage to homes, businesses and cars etc was heartbreaking - especially as most of it happened in areas which have not been known to flood in the past.

Please, please may we have a summer now? Oh and yes, glass I've heard the local lore never to plan anything for the time of the Hoppings - a week to avoid!

It is strange. On Thursday a town about five miles from here was flooded. At the same time we had a lovely day....the odd light shower but nothing lasting more than a couple of minutes. In fact I had to water the garden last night as the plants were wilting.

I`m glad everyone is alright. The sky here went as black as night, the ice cream man said "it`s going to be bad when it comes", but, although almost everywhere within a few miles was affected, the storm itself seems to have gone around us, all we heard were a few thunder rumbles, a little bit of rain, then the sun was out again, very strange.

How awful for everyone who has been flooded again and so frightening for all concerned we where lucky enough to be only hit by really heavy rain and the only flooding was drains which could not cope with the vast amount of water but not to the extent that most people suffered.The rain lasted about 1 hr.and after that the sun was cracking the flags again very weird indeed.So glad everyone is OK.

Glad all you in the worst areas are ok and here's to , may we all have some!

Glad everyone is ok!

Hi All The most scary day ever yesterday. I was due to leave work and the sky suddenly went black. Birds started making weird noises (really spooky I can tell you) and then all of a sudden CRACK a huge bolt of lightening struck the car park right in front of me. Thunder was booming like I have never heard before and the hailstones, blimey. My sister called to say Tyne and Wear Metro off and she couldn't get home from work, so I decided to make the 8 mile journey to pick her up. Big mistake. 4 hours later I hadn't even reached her and was completely stuck in mayhem. Rivers running though the streets, cars floating down the dual carriageway. Never experienced anything like it in my life.

We had a very scray time in Leicestershire yesterday with a huge storm (some are saying it was a tornado). I was sitting as I am now in the conservatory writing away on the lap top DH was sitting with me readng was there was an enormous crack over my head. i thought lightning had struck the conservatory DH thought it was my lap top exploding we shot up in the air and then huge hailstones rained down on the garden covering t in large white golf balls. All gone today but windy and hot. Hope you are all OK.

dorset the weather this week of the year in Newcastle is always notoriously bad..... we have the Hoppings which began in 1882 and is Europe's largest travelling fun fair on the Town Moor and was planned to coincide with Race Week at Newcastle Racecourse, during which the Northumberland Plate is awarded.

Most people in Newcastle avoid this week for a holiday at home as it always rains but not usually to this degree.

glassortwo glad to hear you are safe, it sounds such a frightening experience. As I said a lot of the water is sewage too. Hopefully things will improve but it's certainly been a really rotten summer. Apparently a music festival in Coventry has been cancelled as the grounds have been deemed unsafe.

glass, hope things stay ok for you - and for all others who are affected by the flooding. Puts things into perspective, rather....I've just been wittering away to myself because I can't get my washing dry....

I am fine thanks absent I have posted this on'Today I have'

Well in my part of Newcastle I was lucky we live at the top of a hill, the front street was a raging torrent as the water made its way downhill. I have not ventured down to the village yet this morning but I would imagine that the houses on the river will again be flooded out.

We had just pulled up at the door back from the school run, the sky had that green hue and as we got out of the car the heavens opened and a spectacular thunder storm followed the DGC swung from being amazed to being terrified, (I am thankful that the storm had not arrived 15 minutes earlier as the whole primary school would have been caught in the school yard).

We lost our electric for a short while. It was so bad I rang my DD to warn her that the roads in surrounding areas were becoming impassible, she packed up and started to make her way home, 4 1/2 hours later, after being stranded on a piece of high ground where all surrounding roads were flooded, the fire brigade attended to pump away some of the water, and she was one of the lucky ones she got home.

Some people have not been as lucky as we have, I have friends who are in the process of the clean up after the ground floor of their property was flooded. Dh spent all last night helping to pump out their house and to clear the sewerage away.

We had heavy rain where I live a bit south of Newcastle but no flooding, thank heavens. I hope glass is okay. I'm not sure who else lives in this part of the world.

There are some comments on "Today I've been mainly" and it sounds scary. Hard to imagine that I got sunburnt yesterday here in Kent, while all that was happening further north.