Album Floods from Baron von Beerfest

this is not a lake!

nobody@ipernity.com (Baron von Beerfest) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:07:29 +0000

This was a playing field until the floods turned it into a bit of a lake. You can just about make out the rubgy post in the middle. There is a lot of water there!

Upton-under-Severn

nobody@ipernity.com (Baron von Beerfest) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:06:22 +0000

Baron von Beerfest has posted a doc:

I stopped by on my way home tonight to take a look at the floods. For those of you who might not be aware, we are currently experiencing some of the worst floods in various parts of England. Torrential rainfall has caused flash floods in parts of the country. Drains in many places have trouble coping. City centers are flooded. River banks have burst. Many people are homeless, with much of their possession destroyed.

This is a stretch of road along my normal route to work. When I drove past late last night both sides of the road were already under water. I just about made it through. As water levels began to recede in Northern England, the floods were only just starting in the Midlands. Upton-upon-Severn is prone to flooding in winter, but summer floods are rare events here. If you thought the winter floods were bad enough, this is much worse.

Water levels are expected to rise to their highest sometime tonight. Perhaps they should consider renaming the town "Upton-under-Severn". Fortunately, the emergency flood barriers seem to be doing a pretty good job of holding the water back to avoid more of the town [behind me] coming under water.

As I stood on a 4-in ledge towards the right of this scene taking more pictures, some kids in a Jeep started coming at me. Both sides of the ledge were submerged in water inches deep, and I was trying to run away before the Jeep got anywhere near. Needless to say I made one wrong step and my poor new boots got rather wet. I was not impressed.

[The resizing somehow makes this image look horrible on here. Have a look here instead. Not all that great, but much better than it looks on here.]

summer floods

nobody@ipernity.com (Baron von Beerfest) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:06:20 +0000

Baron von Beerfest has posted a doc:

Flooded road in Upton-upon-Severn.

This was taken on a dry island in the middle of the flooded bit in this shot that I managed to get to by climbing over a pile of junk.

Not only could I not get the angles I wanted for some of the shots because I had no wellies, I also only had a 50mm f1.4 lens with me. I thought about rushing home to get the rest of the gear but I was losing the light anyway so I kind of just stuck with it. The fast lens did come in handy as it got darker though.

floods ttv

nobody@ipernity.com (Baron von Beerfest) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:42:36 +0000

Baron von Beerfest has posted a doc:

This was the scene of the floods back in March. It's a field on my way to work - alternate route, that is, since my normal route was flooded. The water was probably several feet deep. I thought at the time it was some of the worst floods we've seen in years. I was wrong. Those floods were bad in that region, but they were very localized and only low places along rivers [mainly The Severn] were flooded.

We are now currently experiencing even worse floods all across the country. Worse because many are flash floods due to torrential rainfall that we are just not used to here. Drains in many places have trouble coping. City centers are flooded. River banks have burst. A reservoir in Yorkshire is about to burst its banks. A reservoir! Usually in the summer we have problems with not enough rain... "rain not falling in the right places", they say, and reservoirs running dry. This is the first time I've heard of a reservoir about to burst its banks due to too much rain. It's scary.