Today's Storm

Discussion in 'General Chatter' started by MollyMay, Feb 9, 2020.

  1. LianeH

    LianeH Well-Known Member

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    Yep storm Dennis heading in. Had friends fly home from holiday last weekend, bumpy landing then had to sit on the plane as they couldn’t get the stairs to attach as the wind kept blowing them out of line:eek:
     
  2. Findem

    Findem The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.

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    Great to see some responsibility towards old and beautiful buildings, unlike my town of birth, or I should say city since Chelmsford has been granted city status. I don't know if this is true but a while back I heard that Chelmsford had fulfilled the necessary quota of high rise buildings which enabled it to gain city status, what an epitaph.

    On Facebook I belong to a group called Chelmsford Remembered, there's been quite a lot of adverse comments about the way Chelmsford council has allowed the destruction of the old, beautiful and historic buildings, they haven't even bothered to save the facade of the building and put the development behind it. In their place are concrete boxes, I can remember in my very young days people calling the business people who were running the Chelmsford council "the forty thieves", I suspect all is not well these days.

    Possibly Chelmsford has too many Real Estate people on the council like Wollongong had some years ago.

    I am very angry to see my English home town become ugly, the Shire Hall and the Corn Exchange, fine old buildings situated in the middle of the town, have gone, in their place square boxes. I have many fond memories of the Corn Exchange, Roller Skating there on a Saturday morning, now it's gone.
     
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  3. LianeH

    LianeH Well-Known Member

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    @Findem yep its true Chelmsford is now just a big building site, housing developments going up all over the place but no infrastructure to support it. Broomfield hospital is at full capacity (a friend works there). For me, it is very sad that the agricultural college in Writtle has agreed to the sale of some of its fields particularly the one which used to be full of sunflowers which they then sold:(. The Shire Hall at the top of the high street is still there but so many old buildings have disappeared. Chelmsford was only granted city status because it has the cathedral. My personal opinion is that Colchester should have been the county town and city of Essex given it is one of the oldest recorded towns, its roman history. Saying that Colchester is now a monster of a town with more redevelopment than Chelmsford.

    The development in the South East, the amount of people and the cost of getting anywhere (season ticket to London from Chelmsford by train - a 40 minute journey is now over £4000) were some of the reasons Alan and I decided to relocate that and the fact that the Peak District is beautiful, people seem friendlier and we have so much walking and cycling we can do (while we are young enough). The only problem with living up here is when you go out for something to eat you get HUGE portions - my poor waistline:D
     
  4. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    The secret to HUGE portions is get one and two forks. :D We do that when we go for breakfast. The best omelets in Australia but too big for one.
    Again, the reason for us leaving Sydney was too many people, too many apartments and the rude people. The climate is better here although some say it’s too cold in winter..we cope...more clothes. Easy. And we can see the stars at night. No pollution.
    My goodness your train fares are expensive.:eek:
    Because we are pensioners we are now allowed, because we are in a rural area, a transport card that allows us $250 of fuel, train costs, bus costs and cab fares per year. We will be taking full advantage of it when our cards arrive in the mail :D we wouldn’t have it if we lived in Sydney.
     
  5. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    Ooo. The Peak District is lovely, just had a look and found the dinosaur rock. How cute is he. Beautiful scenery.
     
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  6. LianeH

    LianeH Well-Known Member

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    It is stunning, we are very lucky to live here and now having secured jobs we are making the move permanent. Our house in Chelmsford is now on the market so hopefully it will sell quickly. More boxes and bubblewrap. Although Alan keeps telling me its for wrapping not popping - spoilsport:D
     
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  7. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    Oh bubble wrap. I have a box of it from our move. Cut to wrap all sizes. Want some? It’s ok it still works when the bubbles have been flattened. :)
     
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  8. Londoner

    Londoner Will always roll up her sleeves and dig around

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    Since the start of winter we have had just eight days without rain and most of those were over Christmas, a nightmare for those working in the roofing business. Dennis is already bringing more rain but the wind is not too bad at the moment, though forecast to be stronger later.
    I was amused by the advice to people living near railway lines, to secure their trampolines, as last week many were blown onto the lines!
     
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  9. AnnB

    AnnB Editor in Chief who is Hot off the Press!

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    My friends along the road awoke one morning to find their neighbour's trampoline perfectly positioned in the middle of their garden.......:eek:
     
  10. LianeH

    LianeH Well-Known Member

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    I can remember the great storm of 1987. Our garden and both next door neighbours all had apple trees and greenhouses although my mum had placed our greenhouse on paving slabs. When it was all over the neighbours greenhouses had been smashed by apples flying off the trees, our greenhouse was intact but had moved quite a few feet - apple crumble for us:D
     
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  11. Findem

    Findem The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.

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    Liane, wash your mouth out.:(:(
     
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  12. TonyV

    TonyV He who cleans up after his ancestors...

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    The main London to South Coast railway goes through the village near us and when it was built in the mid 1800s the navvies lowered the level of the village street below the new railway bridge so that the railway remained level but agricultural carts could still pass under the bridge. That made the road lower than several local springs so they thoughtfully built a storm drain under the bridge.

    For the last few decades the storm drain has been blocked and nobody had the foresight to record where it is or where it comes out. The chances are that it is under the bridge foundations. So today's tidemark is around 3ft up the side of the bridge, generally believed to be a record by people who have lived next to the bridge for decades.

    One little boy thought it a great opportunity to sail his radio controlled launch under the bridge until it stopped working about 50ft from land. A plea has gone out on Facebook for anyone who has a lifeboat and can retrieve the stranded boat. Mind you they've got a couple of weeks to do so because that's how long it usually takes for the road to be passable again.

    It is an inconvenience for the locals but there are ways around the village other than using this road. What they all find amusing however is the many motorists who regularly move the "Road Closed" signs away so that they can drive their 4 x 4s through, as a result of which they then have to be rescued. And they must be local village idiots because it is a through road to nowhere useful.

    At least the nearby houses are dry and safe from flood as there is no river nearby to overflow, so sometimes it's nice to get a bit of fun from floods. Keeping moving the signs idiots!
     
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  13. Daft Bat

    Daft Bat Administrator. Chief cook & bottle washer! Staff Member

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    We have some nice floods around us but yes, it is mainly the 4x4 drivers who think they are exempt.

    The wellies have certainly had a good workout this winter.... :sceptical:
     
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  14. Findem

    Findem The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.

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    Your source of amusement Tony makes that of my son's and mine look very tame. When we go for a coffee in my local area we like to get a window seat in a certain cafe and in addition to setting the world to rights, pass judgement on people's attempts to park their vehicles. I think, if my memory serves me correct, the record, so far, is seven back and forth movements to get it right. :D
     
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  15. Auburn

    Auburn Well-Known Member

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    Some terrible flooding round our way- luckily not affected directly .
    Is Chimp OK? Powys/Herefordshire not looking good either.
     
  16. Chimp

    Chimp Moderator & Cheeky Human IMP Staff Member

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    I'm ok thanks. There is a little brook at the bottom of my drive that is about 6 to 8 feet below the road level (so that'll be 7 foot then :rolleyes:) it flooded on Saturday night and left a load of branches on top of the bridge. Some houses a few hundred yards down the road weren't so lucky, poor devils got flooded out. The town rallied. One builders yard opened on Sunday and gave sand and bags to anyone who wanted to fill them. Loads of people went to help. The community centre opened to provide food and hot drinks to anyone affected and also for the emergency services. One part of the town needed the fire service and boats to get them to dry land. All roads out of town were closed due to the water, the furthest you could go was to the next town where I work (there went my day off :oops:) We also had a land slip which closed an already closed road :sceptical:. Oh, and the railway line became a new river :eek:

    Just seen this message posted on our towns website

    "The very lovely co-op in town have decided to donate the food items we purchased Sunday to help with the floods"

    Community spirit lives on :)
     
  17. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    How cold. A flood in the middle of winter. We saw some on the news and thought about you but I have idea where you are situated in reference to what I was watching.
    We had a monster storm here last night. It was a big one, spread out from Sydney right out here and beyond. 30 mls of rain in 30 minutes. Most other ‘rain events’ as they are called now, seemed to go around us not over. One poor fellow in Sydney was killed by a flying gas bottle. We have a row of lovely pine trees across from us but I noticed a child’s pink scooter up in the branches. Some smart idiot had obviously tossed it up there but I think it best to inform council and get them to come get it before some poor unsuspecting walker has it land on his head.
     
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  18. TonyV

    TonyV He who cleans up after his ancestors...

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    Further news of our flooded village road under the railway bridge:) (the first episode is above somewhere).

    Last night a man driving a brand new hired Mercedes people carrier stopped his vehicle by the "road closed" barriers that blocked both sides of the bridge, moved them to one side and drove into the roughly 75cm high water. Needless to say he didn't get far and the locals had to get him out. The Merc remains in the water tonight. Can you imagine the bill he'll get when the hire company gets its vehicle back. His excuse to his rescuers "Well people forget to remove road closed signs". Sadly for him he was seen removing the signs and of course he admitted to doing so. "Act of God" will not therefore wash (although the flood water will do a good job both inside and out:rolleyes:)

    Today the local village Facebook page is equally awash with pictures, mirth and memes of frogmen (obviously seeking the little boy's toy boat that disappeared somewhere under the bridge). One local had himself photographed with his fly fishing gear on - trying to catch idiots I guess. However I'm reliably told that none of them was tickled.

    Of the 163 comments on FB to-date only two have suggested that it was a bit unkind to make fun of the senseless. Neither of them was me.:D
     
  19. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    Oh yes. We have some of those senseless dopes here too. Climbing out of the window and clinging onto the side of their 4 wheel drives with swirling waters around them. Waiting to be rescued by others who have to put their own lives at risk. If they only had a brain.
     
  20. TonyV

    TonyV He who cleans up after his ancestors...

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    ..but on a more serious note we have just driven up and down part of the M5 motorway since I last posted and as you drive over the River Avon near to Tewkesbury it's staggering how much land on both sides of the motorway is now under water. A lot of it is floodplain and often floods so is basically farmland when not under water but farmers are losing crops and grazing land is unavailable too.

    It's a disaster at the moment for people living in the flooded areas but it isn't going to get any better and the costs of moving homes away from land that is bound now to flood regularly will be a huge burden for us all, albeit nowhere near the burden for those directly affected.
     
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