Classic British Flight Sim

Flooded roads have been closed in Oxford, Abingdon and Witney. The Thames has burst its banks in Wallingford, and is expected to do so in Pangbourne, watch out Dave!!

All I can say is.................................

"FLOODY 'ELL!!".............OK, I'll get me coat, my RAIN coat!!!

Well at least for once where I live (Ribchester, Lancashire) didn't flood, which makes a change.

The rains been pretty bad of late, I had a interesting drive into work the other day, one minute fine, two minutes or so later, torrential downpour. Thought they were going to shut the village off (Last time it rained hard, even buses were struggling!)

Hope no one down south on here got hit too hard...

watch out Dave!!

Hi Chris,

When I went down to the bank this lunchtime, 2 of the Swan Hotels hire boats were already up on the footpath which was quickly disappearing. They'd got sandbags in place too. The lock in Goring showed 3.5ft of clearance left and the lock itself had some 12 pleasure craft (mainly of the canal longboat variety) sheltering inside and the tow path had disappeared leaving 3 or 4 larger craft with nowhere to go.. they looked like they were anchored not moored :shock:

The rain has stopped and it's quite mild but all the remaining rooms we had spare have been double booked by folk at the Swan worried that they're going to be oiked out at around 1am this morning :roll: Not a happy situation for some though we're quite safe here

ATB

DaveB :tab:

though we're quite safe here Wink

Careful, Dave - you're tempting fate there!

Best,
Myles

As they say Myles, you can't dodge em all

I'm probably in excess of 100ft above the level of the Thames.. perhaps more (it seems like it walking up hill!!) so flooding from the ground up is very unlikely. However.. the rain running downhill causes concern but as long is it doesn't rain like it did on Friday, I'm still ok

ATB

DaveB :tab:

I'm in Gloucestershire, but luckily at the south west end, about 20 miles south of Gloucester itself. My house is 150 ft above the Severn so if we get flooded the rest of the country is in SERIOUS trouble!

Luckily our water and power don't come from the north, so life is almost normal here. But my daughter, the RAF Controller one, was with us on Sunday, and they called her back to Odiham to get some Chinooks off for the rescue efforts. About 3 hrs later we saw one coming over the Cotswolds with a big THING hanging underneath it, presumably en route to Tewkesbury or Gloucester. On Monday morning they showed TV shots of a Chinook sitting on a main road in the Tewkesbury area with buildings on both sides of it! Must have been some landing to watch.

We're off to Odiham Families Day in about 8 hours so I'll see if I can find out more.

Hi Guys..... I live in Evesham Worcestershire, and if you've been watching the TV news regarding the floods you will have seen our town was in the thick of it. The heavy rain started in the early hours of last Friday morning and boy did it rain. I've lived in Aden in Arabia and at times they would get the tail end of the Indian Monsoon and I thought that rain was heavy. Well I can tell you that it can rain just as hard in the UK. It rained non stop for over 24 hours and by Friday evening it was obvious that things were going to be bad. My Wife who works in Pershore about eight miles away fortunately drove home at lunchtime when the roads were still passable. Some of her colleagues who stayed at work till five never did get home. By early evening on Friday river levels (the River Avon flows through the middle of the town) were rising at an alarming level and already many roads over the whole area were impassable due to flood water. Wherever there was a brook, stream, or ditch, there was now a raging torrent that quickly flooded roads or any nearby houses. Main roads and motorways ground to a halt and and eventually all traffic came to a halt because both bridges over the Avon at Evesham became impassable due to floods, and other main roads into or out of the town were closed because of landslides of mud and rocks pouring on to the roads, or in one case near Cropthorne the main road just completely collapsed into a great hole which locals are now calling the Grand Canyon. Energency evacuations were now taking place and RAF Sea Kings were hovering over the areas near the river winching people who were marooned in their house and flats by the rapidly rising water. Between 11pm and 1AM the noise of the helicopters was continuous. By Saturday morning we awoke to a new world dominated by water. Four out of five routes into the town were cut off and flood water levels were at the highest anyone in living memory could recall. The great winter flood levels of 1947 had neen surpassed by at least a foot of water. Many houses had flood water in them and many cars and possessions were ruined. Many shops and garages were affected by flood water and petrol. ,bread, milk were hard to find. Evesham being a popular tourist area has many caravan sites usually located near the attractive river frontage. Well these were now under water and the several caravans were torn from their sites by the floods and sent down the river to smash into the river bridges. Cabin cruisers were also torn from their moorings and sunk or jammed against the bridge. Some local people and others travelling through the area who had lost their home or cars had to be put up in emergency shelters. Eventually the rain eased and after a time the water levels stopped rising. Now a few days later water levels are receding and the great clear up can begin. Roads and bridges are opening again but everywhere you go you see great effects of flood damage to houses, cars, shops etc. And yet compared to places further downriver like Tewkesbury and Gloucester, Evesham has escaped relatively lightly because so many houses are well above the level the river could reach. At Tewkesbury the River Severn and Avon join together and so the water volume is so much greater. If you have escaped the Great Summer Flood of 2007 then give a silent prayer for your good fortune and perhaps think kindly of those many poor unfortunates who feel they have lost everything.

Amen to your last commet Tel One of my suppliers (Holdsworth) delivers to me on Saturday from the Evesham depot and we got a phonecall on Friday to say it wouldn't be happening. Bless their cotton socks.. they arranged a Sunday delivery instead from the Northampton depot!

Glad your wife had the fortitude to leave work early and that you've both escaped the worst of it

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Here's what Tewkesbury looked like yesterday - a full 7 days later :shock:

These were the best I could get from FL75 - there was still restricted airspace up to 3400ft to protect helicopter ops in the area.

Cheers

Rich

Thanks for posting those great pics! Hope they get lots of sun there to help dry things out.