Floods!

Or is it a way of not spending the money, whitewave?
Like the money for the NHS being offered providing they save nearly three times as much.
Both need front-loading. Neither will be.

Exactly!

Daft question here but, when I noticed that the drains seemed to be overflowing and there was a lot of surface water I wondered if we needed to cut back on the amount of water going down our drains; loo flushing, dishwasher use; washing machines etc. I'm very Scrooge like with my water use these days now I have a water meter but have a lot of post Christmas washing that needs doing and wondered if I should hold off until conditions improve. I'm down to my last teatowel but could just wash a few and use my spin dryer to dry them. Other items will pile up a bit could leave them for a week of so as the airing cupboard is full of clean stuff.

When it comes down to it, the floods have been caused by a helluva lot of rain falling in a short space of time. Dredging rivers, clearing drains etc would have made little difference. It's just the current weather pattern, probably mostly natural, and probably partly down to us.

The problem is the result of lots of things but lack of maintenance at pumping stations has made things far worse; and various organisations had warned that this would happen. That wasn't the fault of joe public, although I am annoyed with myself for not emailing my MP when I first heard of the cutbacks. I'll do what I can to ease the situation but am not prepared to blame myself for what has happened.

Apparently, it's because the part near the equator has got hotter and the poles are still just as cold (well, only slightly warmer) so the wind is coming from the west and bringing rain from the Atlantic. And Elmino (sp?) is in there somewhere.

Or something.

This is in accordance with info given by One-Who-Knows-Everything. And I've probably got it all wrong.

Yes, it is an El Nino year this year which, although in the Pacific, affects weather world-wide.

Perhaps if people stopped pouring fat and wipes down the drains and causing fatbergs they could take more water.

Probably different drains Tegan. There's your "surface water drains" and your sewers. Household water goes down the sewers including dishwasher, bath etc. Water that falls on gardens roofs and roads ends up in surface water drains. You pay for this "service" via your water rates but most water companies then pay the councils to maintain the drains and sewers. So council cut backs and austerity should not affect them. The WCs take over when the sewer water reaches the sewage processing plants.
If all the surface water ended up in the sewage processing plants there would be a bit of a problem with their processes getting kind of diluted or even swamped in heavy downpours. So the surface water in the main gets discharged into rivers etc. You can complain to your water company if you think your LA is slacking I think.
Not sure which pumping stations you are thinking of.

jings it is El Nino which means The Christ Child in Spanish. Hence my very proper Capitals. It really should have a squiggle on the second n. shrug.

Older house may have a combined system of drains though, and many modern homes have been misconnected so foul and surface water go into the same drainage system.

It shouldn't happen but it does.

The S.O. told me he'd read that one of the causes of the York flooding was a pumping station that hadn't been maintained. When my village nearly flooded a few years ago a faulty pump was the cause. Thankfully [touch wood] our flood defences are good at the moment.

Yes I know rosequartz I was trying to give an outline.
And in storm overflow situations as well, foul water can end up in sea or river - sewers overloaded etc
Ah right Tegan well not sure who that would come under. EA maybe?

Here is a very good blog on the mismanagement by the government that has contributed to the flooding. In a nutshell, funding cut despite knowledge that more flooding expected.

mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/how-osborne-and-cameron-turned-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+MainlyMacro+(mainly+macro)

Well I have just been chatting to a relative in Somerset; despite storms and heavy rain Somerset has not been so flooded this winter; apparently the dredging of the rivers has worked, some roads have been flooded but (fingers crossed) not so disastrous as 2013/14.

They have also missed the worst of the rain this time. So far. 2 years ago it was unusually far south and the Thames valley was also flooded.
The rain has hit N Wales, Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland this time. So far.

Somerset hasn't had remotely the level of rain they had last time.

I'm n Somerset and I'm ok Jack!

Well, some roads have been flooded in Somerset, but of course the emphasis has been on reporting the terrible floods up North.

Somerset hasn't had remotely the level of rain they had last time

Well, of course, I only know from relatives who live there; storms, roof tiles blown off, deluges of rain. But the Levels have drained because the rivers have been dredged.
They probably have not had the amount that they had in 2013/14 thank goodness.

I'm in Somerset and I'm ok Jack!
Were you flooded last time Galen? It must be terrible, thank goodness my relatives live slightly higher up and the farmers keep the ditches around their village cleared so they were not flooded last time either, although marooned for some time.

And for balance (as they say on the Beeb - because the blog above is by a leftwing economist) there is an article in The Economist this weekend (hardly the more left-learning newspaper ) entitled Northern Waterhouse (p17)
I'll summarise as it is behind a paywall.

6,700 properties flooded in N of England (it went to press pre-Frank i think)
Embarrassing for PM re so-called northern powerhouse "and he deserved it"
Post 2010 he reduced spending on flood prevention by 1/5 - "bit of a splurge" after Somerset but now dropped back to below the amounts being spent when he entered Downing St. : "hundreds of relatively cheap schemes have been cancelled including one that could have prevented the flooding in Leeds"
EA only responsible for rivers and coasts - only 40% of the recent floods fall into this category.
Local authority responses were poor because deep cuts have affected emergency response and ongoing investment.
People helped themselves. And social media e.g. Twitter often better source if info than councils.

There is a map Rosequartz that shows that 28/11 to 28/12 there were 82 flood warnings in the SW of England and 928 across the North of England.

There is money available for flood relief from the EU Solidarity Fund but our Government hasn't make an application to it. I would like to know why and am going to ask my MP. Perhaps if you are as non-plussed by this inaction as I am, you would like to do so too.

"I"m ok Jack"! That's a bit blatant isn't it?

Good idea annodomini

The main road near here was flooded today, luckily there was an alternative (longer) route around.

www.mysociety.org/

The easy way to write to your MP or find out what they have been doing in parliament, just in case anyone wants to be reminded.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-floods-have-revealed-the-imbecility-of-osborne-s-target-a6794846.html

What was Osborne's criticism of Brown, he didn't fix the roof while the sun was shining?
Laughable now, isn't it?
Osborne forgot the drains are important as well.

Hope no-one gets flooded

It's still raining!