liz_marcs | To all my peeps in central and western England...

And Scotland isn't getting the floods even though on the whole we get more rain than England, because it's too cold.

Yeah, but we're used to it. The west coast gets a lot more rain than central England. Just not all at once. See, a little bit every day adds up...

Right now I'm freezing where I am (middle of July!) I'm thinking that it's sweater time!

Gah. This weather is just getting weirder and weirder...

The Uck near me is getting dangerously high but doesn't yet look like it is going to flood like it did a few years ago.

I imagine it will go onto flood warning sometime towards the end of the week and will most likely inundate Uckfield again.

You know? I read very familiar looking town names...like Gloucester and Tewkesbury and Berkshire...and this warm feeling of familiarity washes over me.

Then I see a name like Uck. I have to read it several times to make sure that: 1) I read the name right; and 2) that a letter isn't missing. ^_^

Then I realize, okay, not so familiar now.

Sorry. I giggled like I was 12 when I read Uck and Uckfield. I know, I know...

There is actually an advert playing at the moment with Vinnie Jones that makes a play on funny place names.

Just a little map to show you the Uck and the ouse which are the rivers likely to flood Lewes and Ukfield.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=river%20uck%20uckfield&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl

Strangely I actually think there is an uck and ouse in the north or East Anglia as well.

Thankfully there is no current warning but the water table is pretty high going by the sodden state of my garden so I figure that despite our helpful chalky ground on the hills at somepoint if it continues to rain then surface water will start to run off. Crowborough is high so we are safe from standing floods but the surface runoff is what got us last time.

At least it is highlighting the good work etc our emergency services and the Forces do despite cut backs. The government is now partially reaping the results of its cutbacks in search and rescue now.

Some are starting to point out that it hasn't stopped raining since Brown became PM.

There are plus sides to living in Lockerbie...it may be a cultural wasteland likened to wartime Beirut, but it's too high for flooding.

Though given the torrential downpour outside my window at the moment, I pity anyone living down the way, at the bottom of the valley...

Hills are ftw!

I life near the Charles River, but the banks where I am are something like 20 feet high, so things would have to go really pear-shaped for me to get into any trouble.

It certainly isn't confidence inspiring to look at a map and see that huge areas of flooding around the area of the country you're living in. Meh. My flat's pretty high up; it'd take Noah's flood to get my stuff.

Yeah, but the if flood doesn't get you, the mold most certainly can. That's a real danger, the mold, especially since some of that stuff's toxic. *shudders*

Still, stay safe.

Add to that the fact that there was just as much flooding about a month ago in counties about 100 miles north of the current ones, and you realise an awful lot of England has spent part of the summer under water!

Gah, I remember when you guys had drought either last year or the year before. I'm pretty sure this would not be considered a welcome change.

We're under quite the rain storm here as well and it's freezing cold (in July!). It feels like mid-fall right now.

Plenty of coverage and lots of photos and videos on the BBC news website.

Things are grim a few miles north of here. A major water pumping station is out of action (it's flooded, even though it was built away from the usual flood plain), as are a number of electricity substations, so something of the order of 350,000 people are without running water, and around 15,000 have no power. It could take a fortnight to fix the water, although the hopes are it'll be much sooner than that.

As for the rail and road networks...

The floods are expected to peak in the next few hours - there's a delay as the water works its way down from the higher ground. The highest recorded rainfall on Friday was 162 mm (about 6 1/2 inches), although many places received more than 100 mm (4 inches). Some rivers are 20 feet above normal.

Meanwhile, as one part of the government tries to explain why they need to work out how to be better prepared, another, well: The government has not ruled out more development on flood plains, as it unveils plans for 3m new homes by 2020.

The clue is right there in the name, old chaps. Flood plain. Flood plain.

I was going to pimp the BBC website - the pictures are positively surreal.

And by the way, you are spot on about the government. How can they be so stupid? Oh yeah, because we elected them... D'oh!

Nice to know stupidity is the international language.

Destroy the silt deposits around New Orleans...destroy the natural barrier that could've help lessen the damage.

Build houses in the flood zone around the Mississippi...watch your house float away.

Build houses on the side of a mountain in California...watch your house turn into a sled when the rare heavy rain comes along.

Where I am, I'm starting to see houses built in flood plains as well. And the past few years in New England have been rainy like you wouldn't believe. I think the only reason why we haven't flood yet is because most of the rivers around here were harnessed for waterpower early on and we're relying on locks to do controlled water releases.

Last I heard, there's no way they can even get inside the water plant until Wednesday, and that's before assessing the damage. *sigh* Meanwhile, the Severn is still rising at 0.4 inches an hour and heading towards the top of the flood barriers near me rapidly.

Thankfully, I still have power and the internet (though that's been sporadic the last few days).

Well, keep safe. *hugs*

Hopefully you won't have to evacuate.

Thanks for the links.

My god, those are surreal to look at.

It might be a crisis, but as yet precious little of a calamity - few people have lost their lives (BBC news reports have mentioned only one death), and aside from the dreadful damage to property, it seems like it will pass.

It is interesting that when there are similar catastrophes around the world, Britons strive to send aid. When it happens in our own country, most relief seems to come from the supermarkets - who have been making sure their stocks get through! Well, they have the logistics infrastructure, I guess.

Heee! And because you all need tea, damnit!

Still, I'm glad that (so far) the casualties have been low. *fingers crossed* that it stays that way.

Mwehehe... I was *camping* in that...
Luckly the campsite didn't get too much of the bad weather, so aside from getting a lot of things very muddy I was OK. But I feel sorry for those who lost power and suffered badly because of it. It really was very heavy.

Well, I'm glad you got out okay. ^_^

But this is just awful for you guys.

*twiddles thumbs and looks out of window anxiously*

Yeeeeah... not the best of times here. That Tewkesbury picture? Half an hour away from me in Gloucester.

Heard about the water shortage yet? Right in the middle of all this flooding, we're currently on drought status. The flood water's hit the nearby water treatment plant, so can't trust the piped stuff anymore.

Vaguely surreal.

Not really surprising, actually. Whenever there's a flood, potable water is in very short supply. There were people in New Orleans dying from dehydration even as the flood waters were drowning everyone.

The only away around it if you have no bottle water is boiling water on top of the stove or iodine tablets. Hopefully, you'll get out of this okay.

Fortunately London isn't too bad so far, though people are making anxious noises about the Thames overflowing downstream from the Thames Barrier. Also fortunately, my bit is on a gentle rise, high enough above sea level that flooding is VERY unlikely, and we still have pretty good Victorian sewers. Though knowing the crapness of Thames Water, who supply most London homes, any time now they'll tell us that the water isn't safe to drink or impose a hosepipe ban!

To all my peeps in central and western England...

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