Environment Agency Manager for Hereford and Worcs (gives reports for neighbouring counties as well, eg Shrops, Gloucs) reckons it has been 53 days since he was last in the office because of flooding because of having to visit sites.

https://twitter.com/DaveThroupEA

 

 

Bewdley update: the River Severn here has now exceeded Sunday's peak level. As of 13.00, it stood at 4.85m and rising. That's an increase of 7cm in the past hour alone and only 6cm short of the "highest recent" level of 4.91m from Jan 2008, (Not Jul 2007 here.) As the river is still rising at Bridgnorth and Buildwas, I'd expect that 2008 level to be surpassed today. The EA are increasing the height of the Severnside defences; Dave Throup of the EA posted this pic a little while ago:

https://twitter.com/DaveThroupEA/status/433229298540249088/photo/1

Roads: Bewdley Bridge remains closed to traffic (although open to pedestrians) and seems likely to remain closed all week. the same goes for the "switchback" B-road from Bewdley to Stourport. The Bewdley Bypass is open and running fairly smoothly, but judging by the horrible congestion this morning I'd expect it to be extremely slow once school run/rush hour time comes around. Stourport Road is closed from Beale's Corner to Westbourne Street.

Kidderminster-Bewdley buses are running, but are going via the bypass so face significant delays. Congestion in Bewdley town centre means some buses are only serving Hales Park. The EA predict another peak of 4.9-5.2m on Thursday. The river is falling at Shrewsbury, but is now rising again at Welshpool and Newtown. To finish on a cheerier note, though: the sun has been out this lunchtime! It's cloudy again now, but it is at least not raining.

Thames at Chertsey now at 1.40 metres, and the Nailbourne back up to 0.67 metres following today's rain (so far)...

 

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Friends/Relatives in and around the Thames in Surrey/Middx have been evacuated. One from Staines another from Egham with others staying by the skin of their teeth.

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It's astonishing down there eh Jon?! I've just seen via Facebook, 2 of my friends now have water lapping at their doors, and they're in Egham Hythe! My old place by the river is well and truly buggered too.

I'm off back to Bridge nr Canterbury again tomorrow, where it's looking dire again. We've been told to expect deployment avery day until at least next week.

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Yeah I'm sorry about that. The link came from Eagle Radio's facebook page.

According to Thorpe Park's Official Facebook page, the Army and Emergency services were stationed there yesterday afternoon to help local residents in Chertsey.

BBC reporting problems on the M2:

"A 10-mile section of the M2 motorway in north Kent has been closed in both directions after a 50ft-deep hole appeared in the central reservation. The Highways Agency said the hole measured 16ft (5m) by 6ft (2m) and was 50ft (15m) deep."

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Are experts looking into it?

From the Surrey Mirror:

 

Coulsdon weatherman Ian Currie said that 500mm (20 inches) of rain had fallen since December 12. This was an unprecedented amount and that there had been nothing like it since the 18th century. All this water is percolating down into the sub-stratas and emerging in the Caterham bourne, which only appears at times of extreme rainfall.

The underground watercourse, which runs from Woldingham via Whyteleafe to  Purley, came to the surface this week just off Woldingham Road.

According to superstition the bourne – known as the "woe water" – is the  portent of doom.

It emerges overground only sporadically.

Among other things its appearance is said to have coincided with the Great  Plague of 1665, three times ahead of major military losses in the First World  War, and on the eve of a typhoid epidemic in 1938.

 

 

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A lot of surface water lying about across the fields/grassy areas and a swallow brook to.

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From Twitter :

https://twitter.com/Kent_999s/status/433276295871361024/photo/1

 

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i have not seen the winterbournes run at such a continuallly high level in this area all my life ,50 odd years. springs are breaking out all over the place. dry one day , running water the next.

Bewdley: the Severn peaked at just over 5 metres yesterday afternoon/evening, the highest level since 2000. It's now falling very slowly: at 11.00 it was 4.91m. Falling more noticeably upstream at Buildwas, but it's going up again at Newtown thanks to today's rain. (It's horrible outside here in Bewdley, even sheltered from the worst of the wind.) Road closures the same as yesterday; the bypass was briefly closed earlier while police dealt with an unspecified "incident", but has now reopened.

Down in Worcester, the main bridge is now closed to pedestrians as well as cars, as is New Road. There's currently a shuttle bus service connecting Broad Street and St John's, and it's hoped to run this through the evening rush hour, but it's uncertain whether it will be safe. If/when it has to stop, the only way across the Severn by road will be via the southern bypass. Hanley Castle High School is closed, but Crowngate bus station is (perhaps surprisingly) still open.

I've been out and about in Canterbury, Bridge, and Wingham today. If you never went to any of the villages alongside the Nailbourne, you'd be forgiven for questioning what all the fuss was about. Even the drive in to Bridge this morning saw a previously flooded road, now almost clear. However...

The ground is totally saturated, and water tables completely swamped, and wouldn't take any more rain for come time. Guess what?...yes, it pissed down this afternoon! Result was an almost instant rise in the river, and that road has become almost impassable to normal cars, in just a few hours.

I've been at the meetings with villagers, KCC, and the EA today, and I can tell you it's a very challenging situation to say the least. So much head scratching, planning, re-planning, flood controls being installed, re-installed, sewers being pumped out 4 times a day....it's relentless. They even used high capacity hoses to take water out of the rive one side of the main bridge, across the main road, and back into the river the other side in an effort to stop the bridge being put under too much pressure. These pipes were protected from the traffic by some metal ramps. However, the're on the brow of a hill, meaning cars were grounding on them as they passed over. So they then had to tarmac over them. Tonight or tomorrow, thay are being replaced by even bigger pipes, which will require the tarmac to be ripped up, and relayed again....and no one knows if this will work, or even it will have no impact downstream! There are numerous temporary pumps installed, and if just one of those fails, there could be very serious flooding.

All eyes now, are on Friday's storm of course. I'm back home now, but we're expecting a call tomorrow, and will most certainly be assisting again from Friday through the weekend.

The residents however (most of them anyway) have been superb. The gratitude they've shown for us knocking on doors every 4 hours in the pouring rain, just to check they're ok, and that their toilets are working etc, has made this potentially miserable job very rewarding. I hope to return in the summer, and visit the village and people again, just to see what it should be like.

Meanwhile, back in the Chertsey/Staines area, 2 of my friends' homes are now flooded. Part of me wants to pack up and go help up there. Incredible scenes in my old back yard. The Thames seems to have dropped marginally at Chertsey, down to 1.37 metres when I last looked, but for how long I don't know. There can often be up to a week's delay before they feel the impact of upstream rain.

 

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Thanks for the report and well done - you are doing a great job and I'm sure it is very much aoppreciated.

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Of historical interest, the flooding at Hambledon, just N of Porrtsmouth, which has closed the road and swamped a number of houses, used apparently to be a regular occurrence. But when the winterbourne rose, it was kept in bounds in the main street by raised pavements on either side. Come the last war, and these pavements were removed to allow passage of heavy equipment for D-day, but never replaced.

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Hear, hear. I second that.

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Indeed. When I was a councillor for Denmead Parish which is a few miles away from Hambledon I had responsibility for flood management and I know of Hambledon's issues.

The village lies in the course of an old chalk stream which regularly bubbles-up in times of high rainfall but the recent events are exceptional. My guess is that it will take several more weeks and some dry weather for the water table to recede and the chalk springs to stop supplying the main street with unwelcome fresh water.

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We were expecting a dry day today, and plans had been to use this weather window to "re-jig". However, it rained again! At the moment, I'm still at home so can't get the very latest on the situation.

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Just posting to provide an update on the situation in Egham, Surrey:

The water levels covering Windsor Road and the Runnymede fields have declined substantially today. I think the mild temperatures and high winds have helped with evaporation rates quite a bit. Also we had significantly less rain than forecast on Friday (10-13mm as opposed to 20mm+). Whilst many of the flood victims within Egham, Wraysbury, Datchet etc. are still out of their homes, the current decline in water levels is very welcome news. It also puts the chances of a breach of Egham bypass (a potentially devastating occurence for parts of Egham) down a lot. 

Hoping the slightly drier theme continues!

Yes (or 'Ya' as they say in Surrey :D) - a friend of mine has posted on FB this morning, to say she can now see the grass in her back garden poking through the water at least. Still watching for another surge once the last few day's rain works its way down, but so far so good.

Over in East Kent, the Nail Bourne reached even higher levels than last week, but it looks like all the mammoth work being put in by the EA/KCC/Etc has prevented a disasterous outcome for the villages on it's banks. Thankfully, this river doesn't have quite the same upstream catchment as the Thames, so now it's stopped raining, the river sho9uld fall away quite nicely, as shown here:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/136486.aspx?stationId=1139

 

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Flood waters maybe subsiding for now, but the problems persist in the Caterham Bourne Valley

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Raw-sewage-floods-streets-Kenley/story-20652080-detail/story.html

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Noted that this is the first day since ?? when there are NO weather warnings at all for the week ahead on Met Office site 😁

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Severn still high in Worcester but at Shrewsbury its now slipped back into the typical range - must be pretty much at its lowest for 2 months i would have thought.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120744.aspx?stationId=2039

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120747.aspx?stationId=2036

Levels on upper parts of the Vyrnwy have dropped off a lot now

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120747.aspx?stationId=2062

 

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Flooding-south-Croydon-spreads-Coulsdon/story-20659727-detail/story.html

Situation still dire down here. Tonights and tomorrows rain wont help as groundwater is at record levels

 

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