Surrey Floods!

Oh my goodness, what a morning...I actually heard the rain through the double glazing...I mean, for a start, that doesn't happen very often...!  It's got to be pretty bad....

Decided to brave it, headed out suited as best I could for the conditions, got as far as the first field (before the hill), stepped to the side to dodge (what I thought was) a big puddle (in the dark), and my feet completely vanished under about 6 inches of water into the *proper* puddle lurking right next to it (hidden in some deceptive grassy material)...the rest of the walk was dodging (making sloshing sounds with my trainers) floods and rivers or various sizes and trying to pull the soaked flapping jeans away from my freezing legs...

By the time I got to Earlswood (bear in mind this was just about 25 minutes after checking everything was okay (from the warmth of the sofa) and leaving the house just expecting (just a bit of) a drenching) - my telephone was steamed up (as you can tell from the picture), the station was flooded and pretty much every train (that has been showing "On Time" was now delayed or cancelled (by up to 120 minutes and there was talk of bus replacements)!

Honestly, if I hadn't set off precisely when I did I don't think I would have made it at all!  Still, second day in a row that I get free rail travel thanks to "Delay Repay"... ;)

Earlswood Station Rain storm...

...it's just absolutely horrible at the moment (last couple of communting days exactly the same)...today the early train was completely cancelled thanks to flooding at Christ's hospital...this can't have been a surprise can it?  Could they not have started it from Horsham on this occasion?  What about tomorrow?

Horrible Weather this morning!

Thanking my lucky stars that I did the entire walk (listening to Larry Niven's RingWorld) in gentle drizzle, walked onto the platform at Earlswood (shaking the rain from my coat) and then -the above- happened...absolutely crazy, train was three minutes late into the station and then delayed by a further twenty at South Croydon due to a power failure...

I'm putting my assessment of the rail improvement works (that closed the entire line over Christmas) on hold for the time being...we'll see how things are after the weekend...fair is fair... ;)

Bosham - Tidal Floods

So after a jolly nice lunch of vegetarian ciabatta pizza -

- at the very lovely Crown and Anchor pub and Appledram (right on the waterside of Chichester Harbour) -

- through which Thomas slept throughout, even when a very quick passing shower made us have to dash for cover under a flimsy table umbrella (assisted by a waitress who dragged the pram top for Flyingpops) we decided to go and check out Bosham again...On our previous visit we had a passable Sunday Lunch at "The Anchor Bleu" in town -

- of roast beef (and "vegetarian option" for Flyingpops, which I think turned out to be a "bit extra" cauliflower cheese) -

- on that occasion, after feeding, we took a little walk around, noticing with some amusement the following sign at the end of the road the pub was on -


- this time, we were lucky enough to see the same place but at high tide -

- (rather a transformation) -

The guy in the ice cream van had to keep starting it up and driving it out of the water...! ;)

Boscastle at Christmas

So that afternoon (back to Christmas) we decided we would pop over and see what progress has been made in Boscastle after the terrible flood in 2004 that devastated the town a few years ago...

Not a huge amount has changed, it somehow felt like the car park was higher up (although it could have been my imagination), but there was a perfectly tangible new huge chunky wall on the river bank -

- (next to a brand spanking new toilet block) -

- flood defences have been drastically improved before the original bridge -

- (comparison shot from 2006) -

- and the channel past the bridge has been significantly widened and deepened -


- (comparison) -

- there is a brand new visitors centre -


- and a nice new bridge (which is extremely low profile) to help prevent build up, as the old one acted something like a dam when 14 floating cars got caught up under it -

- everything (largely) appears to be back to normality in the village (still one or two buildings under construction, incredibly) -

- and the odd paranoid sandbag lingers (as there was a mini repeat performance in June 2007) -

- but, as I noted before, there is simply no going back to the well matured, charmingly scruffy feel of the Boscastle of yore...a shame, especially as this was very far from the first time such an event has taken place (records date back to 1847)...it almost feels like securing the portal when the quadruped has already scarpered... :(

London Flood Risk map - check your postcode

So, this is where I used to work (the map comes from the environment agency "Flood risk" map) showing what would happen (in dark blue) if local rivers breached their banks, and what would happen (in light blue) if there was an "Extreme flood"...

...pretty safe in Islington then, even though they do have the odd canal...Anyway, according to rumours going round "the Wharf" at the moment, the tidal surge is due to hit the barrier at about 1600hrs...now, compare the above map to where I am currently sat -

- oo-er! Rather a stark difference, however, note the purple lines, these are flood defences designed to stop us all drowning like rats in the London underground on the way home (just to serve us all right for working on the London Floodplane)...included among them is the mighty Thames Barrier (as I mentioned already), which gives London an odds of flooding of 1:2000 years (about 0.05% per year), add to that the fact that the surge is about 8 inches lower at the moment than expected previously (according to the latest measurements), and we will probably be just fine...goodness knows what the Romans used to do though, all get into boats probably... ;)
Anyway, if you want to check your postcode for the possible need to swim back home from work tonight, here is the postcode checker...

Thames Barrier Raised

Well, so this morning we are facing "Extreme danger to life and property", peering out the window I'm afraid the only sign of anything untoward occuring is the obvious sight of the Thames Barrier being raised (if you click that picture I have put a note on the flickr page to show you where to look), and they hadn't even put all of it up when I took this photo, although looking out the window now it does appear to be stretching all the way across...haven't checked the news yet, but the tidal surge was supposed to strike the east coast at about 8am, guess it will take a couple of hours to work it's way all the way up the Thames, pictures later on if Canary Wharf goes underwater (although it's not going to get my feet wet as I'm on the 20th floor)... ;)

In other news, had a bit of a panic on the tube today thanks to a bit of slightly unusual behaviour - just as the doors were closing at Bermondsey someone (just out of the corner of my eye, as I was reading my copy of Metro at the time) appeared to throw a large rucksack onto the packed carriage and then walked away! My mind immediately ran along a very unpleasant fantasy whereby the rucksack started smoking, everyone panicked (followed by mass death and destruction) I looked around for an emergency button and couldn't see one anywhere, looked around to see if anyone else was worrying and then noticed a very small backpacker sat on the floor on the *other side* of the door reaching between someones legs to get a book out of a side pocket...Grrr...