Floods and blame shifting

My chimney is wailing like a banshee at the moment, the lights are flickering occasionally too.
There was a largish tree uprooted outside Sainsburys this morning, and another blocking a road.
A fire engine has just been down to the end of my road, (cul-de-sac).
I'm just glad that I don't live on the other side of the road as the houses back on to a huge field with a row of enormous trees behind the gardens! [scary]

I'm surprised we still have electricity. I don't know whether the high winds are more scary at night when you can't see what's going on outside or in the daytime when you can.

Lights keep flickering here, too . I do hate high winds, the noise makes me very uneasy

Same here, Nellie. It's absolutely wild and the great big oak trees are creaking and groaning. A case of sit tight till it starts to die down. Can't imagine many planes bring able to land round here at present. 90 mph gusts just mentioned on TV, continuing till 8 or 9 pm, possible power disruptions.

It's B windy in Cheshire right now.
My electronic weather station is showing a barometric low of 963millibars. that is too low for comfort. Batten down the hatches and take care. Oops the lights just flickered.

I am beginning to think that we might have to move eventually - if we are going to get this weather regularly, my OH is too unwell to deal with it and it makes his anxiety go through the roof. I had planned to be carried out of here feet first - we'll see what happens.

My children love our home here and love visiting, but I think they are beginning to get worried as to whether it is practical - on a steep hill, vulnerable in wet weather, indoor steps downstairs - but, to me, it has the best views in the whole world.

I feel dreadfully sorry for any of you who are affected by all this, whether it is your home or your livelihood that is in danger.
Aside from the physical loss or damage to land, homes and belongings, the associated stress and uncertainty about the future must make it even more unbearable.

As the blame-game goes on, I thought that this article from the Guardian gave food for thought:

www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/12/flood-crisis-dredging-climate-change?CMP=twt_gu

The wind is just hideous here this afternoon, down one minute, then whoosh, off we go again. We've live in a log cabin for the past two years which is built off the ground on a trailer and has proved a great success of a number of reasons, but in the very high winds you can feel it slightly shaking which is a bit unnerving!!!!! other than we are so lucky where we live and have a lot to be grateful for and as I said I feel SO sorry for people everywhere who are affected.

Flickety - the borehole was shown on main BBC news, it just came gushing out.

Hope everything stays safe for you, Mishap. DS has a similar problem with the drains in Staffordshire. They've been OK up to today but they're having horrendous weather today.

Just about everywhere in the country seems to be affected now in one way or another. The wind has been awful here today and more rain than we were expecting. We still have a lot to be thankful for though.......fingers crossed.

FlickertyB, we used to live in Wallingford (which I loved) many moons ago, and I can remember such happy days when my children were small taking them to the river in the summer. In those days it cost 6d for a day ticket to use the outdoor swimming pool (1/- at weekends!) so I and friends used to take it in turns looking after the children while others of us swam - I can't believe that we all seemed to have such untroubled lives, compared to my daughters complicated slightly frantic domestic arrangements! Perhaps we all wanted less, and were content with what would now be considered dull lives. Very small house, furnished with second hand /parents cast off furniture, elderly car, no foreign hols, sometimes a week in Somerset on OH's cousins farm!! Weekends visiting Granny, shopping, coffee with friends and LOTS of laughter. I remember it as being an extremely happy time.

It's not great. We are on constant alert, as when a deluge comes down off the hill the drains can block in an instant and you have to get out there with a shovel. OH is anxious +++++ which does not help!!!

Hope everything is ok Mishap?

I suspect Somerset will be dry before the rest of us. the Levels are being cleared at the moment by pumps, unfortunately at present the water is coming down faster than it is being pumped out, but when the balance changed they will soon see their flood water pumped into the rivers and away into the sea.

The biggest problems are going to be in areas like the Thames Valley where there is no where to pump water to and the sea is a long way away.We are just going to have to wait until it sinks into the ground. There was a snip of film on the BBC online site showing the removal of the cap of a borehole near us at Wallingford. As soon as the cap came off he water poured out like a fountain. It was done to illustrate just how full to overflowing the aquifers are, they can absorb no more water so there is no where for the water to go. We are going to have floods round us for months.

Devastating for local farmers who face a third year with part of their land unsowable because it is so wet and when the do so, some of their land unharvestable because the land is too wet to get machinery on to it.

Watching the plight of farmers is heartbreaking but I've also been thinking of the people who work so hard in well known gardens such as Margery Fish's at Lambrook Manor in Somerset.

If the floods take weeks or months to subside (as has been suggested) many valuable plants could be lost and years of planning and hard work wasted.

Oh you poor person mishap, I do hope today isn't proving too treacherous for you and your family. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this dreadful saga! when oh when will it stop, it's just getting too much to bear.

The sun come out this afternoon! - but lots more rain to come overnight, so fingers crossed.

Wishing you 'Good Luck' Mishap as requested and some

I've just read this series of questions to Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgewater and West Somerset, and his answers. It looks as if attitudes to how the Somerset Levels should be managed will change now. I hope so. See his comment about EA lions on the ground being led by donkeys at the top.

Oh dear, thinking of you all. Keep safe.

You poor things, Mishap. Stay safe and don't let OH do too much. Easy for me to say in relatively dry East Anglia.

Good Luck.

Your poor son must be thoroughly fed up - I am sure he is doing his best.

I have just tried, and failed, to get through to pick up my GD, whom I care for on a Tuesday. Water everywhere, and someone in a 4x4 flagged me down and said worse was ahead and she did not think I would get through. So I have had to abandon this.

Got back to find my OH (with dicky ticker and PD) out in the driving rain trying to free a drain to stop our house flooding. Luckily a neighbour came to help. Rain has now stopped but still lots of water, as it is pouring through the banks and hedges onto the road, as the fields are sodden.

Wish us luck.

I must declare an interest in this as my son works as a Flood Manager for the EA. Over the years I have listened to him, sometimes in despair at government blocking various projects that need to be undertaken including dredging. The EA do know exactly what has to be done but of course there will always be budget restraints and being a "democratic" country it will be our decision - through government - where the money will be spent. So never loose sight of the fact that the EA is totally controlled by the government, and don't allow the politicians to shift the blame onto folk who cannot defend themselves, and whose work has saved many homes/businesses from disaster.

And which one of them will be the first to say "Lessons will be learned" ??

iPad good article