London floods

Thanks for asking, Oliver. Here sunny spells and heavy showers. Yeah, I'm on alert, me too I didn't hear anything about cataclysms yet. I can only speak forN1, N5, N7, and N6; but then not entirely because as you know sometimes I lost contact with reality. I'm back at home and well, the front of my shorts is humid, the shoes are ok they got dried already, my cat is sleeping on the bed, later I will browse the internet and do some research though.

The lack of reports seems to indicate that yesterday wasn't too bad, which is a relief, although, as forecast, it hit the North more. Here's something on plans for flood defences:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/glass-barriers-thames-flooding-flash-risk-london-climate-change-b948279.html

I'm not sure if they've looked to Germany, where along rivers like the Moselle they now use barriers composed of metal uprights between which variable stacks of horizontal metal bars can be slotted in depending on what height of barrier is needed. It seems like a good system and is perhaps what's meant by 'demountable' barriers in the article.

Some more on flood defences throughout England:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/29/record-funding-for-flood-defences-in-england-as-climate-crisis-worsens-risks

And a potentially dangerous storm is coming to the south-west:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/29/storm-evert-high-winds-and-heavy-rain-to-hit-south-west-england

This is a useful compilation of all sorts of short videos uploaded in July:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Helt62rXjB8

It gives an impression of lots of different areas and shows how bad it was--obviously not nearly as bad and destructive as a 7-metre flood wave coming down a narrow river valley, but God knows what would happen if London had rain like they had in Zhengzhou or in the Ahrtal.

Yes very useful. Makes me wonder if we should start a start-up based on Gondola and Gondoliere to cover a new way of transport, maybe cycling powered? Definitely fixed though.

From a certain archive:

Fulham Floods of 1928 and the heroism of Madge Franckeiss

The floods were described by the West London Observer the following week (13 January 1928):

[The water] burst through the river walls and banks as if they were
made of paper, and inundated all the surrounding districts. The plight
of the people living near the river can be better imagined than
described, the calamity occurring in the pitch darkness of early
morning. The flood carried all before it, breaking down all barriers
and rushing into the basements and rooms on the street level, doing
inestimable damage and imperilling the lives of all those who happened
to be sleeping in the inundated rooms.

Madge described what happened to a reporter of the local paper, the West London Observer:

2 Attachments

Later the beautifully illustrated citation described the rescue, and award:

2 Attachments

What a story! Anyway, Tldr? In a nutshell:

1 Attachment

Back to the present now a still from the 2007 disaster film, Flood; thread wise, are we covered for the London tsunami?

1 Attachment

London tsunami

Prospects don’t look great.

1 Attachment

Not even a chance for an under-passage, a basement, an Archibishop tomb to be flooded? What a relief!

Here we go again, once more it seems fairly random where the flooding is worst, or perhaps it's just down to where the reports come from/where someone has taken a video that they send in?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tower-bridge-flooded-rain-london-rush-hour-weather-b955176.html

Significantly, there is now a growing expectation that this will be the wettest September ever with Ladbrokes slashing its odds on such an outcome.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tower-bridge-london-flooding-latest-b1919779.html

Flooding on the North Circular in Brent near the A41 and Brent Cross is routine.
The River Brent was canalised a generation ago,
and the huge expanses of impermeable surfacing just can't empty into it in time.

Building works are continuing at a decent pace on Oliver Rd in Leyton, on top of the covered Fillybrook river.

There will be a few high storey blocks of flats. Oh well

How are the buried rivers maintained? Do they regularly send cameras down there to inspect the tunnels?

No idea I'm afraid. The Fillebrook bubbled up recently pretty spectacularly at Whoops Cross and loads of other roads that are built over it.

There is a section near me where you can always hear rushing water (Newport Rd E10 if anyone wants to hear it) but on the evening of the floods, when I passed the normally noisy manhole, it was totally silent. /csb

The bit being built on is shown around the 22 minute mark of this video, right next to the maze at Coronation Gardens

https://youtu.be/siYn-BTCKNU

It's a massive site, loads of high rise blocks.

Watched that just after I asked as it goes, my kind of evening YouTube content!

Pffft, Oliver Road can do no wrong. :)

But yes, it's funny how many parts of the Lower Lea Valley were clearly missed out in earlier times, why, just why? Let's correct these historic mistakes, shall we?

Is it safe to say that lately this has been happening a lot more than it used to?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/flooding-london-tube-delays-knightsbridge-southeast-squally-showers-b958798.html

Some flooding going on--the article is from two days ago, so it may not have been as dramatic as it tries to make out:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-flooding-travel-christmas-weekend-weather-forecast-b973870.html

This is all I can find apart from the above:

https://www.mylondon.news/weather/london-flooding-north-circular-rain-22575003

the article is from two days ago, so it may not have been as dramatic as it tries to make out:

You have no one to blame expect for yourself for finding it twice two days late.

Latest summary.

We are stll awaiting the report from the London Flood Review, promised in the first half of 2022, with earlier interim reports (none that I have discovered yet). Meanwhile Westminster was pretty quick off the mark and reported on 21 September last year (stats and maps)

Part of the Thames path have been flooded and the water pushed up the rubbish that people just chuck down the side of it, it's pretty depressing.

3 Attachments