Some of the flooding around Frome yesterday, the river did rise for some time after I took these shots

then receded quite quickly. Some drivers were caught out with th depth on some of the roads and paid the penalty and ended up getting their feet wet, maybe they thought they were piloting a sub.

Some more of the Floods from yesterday around the town. The first photo would of been my route to work if it were any other day.

I don't know how anyone could have driven through that.

That looks way too deep.

You'd be surprised how many try Gav, that blue one made it, just, two more tried and turned back and the next one stopped in the middle  The most worrying one was at a place called Wallbridge, the road goes over the river but dips down outbound from town, this catches out dozens of drivers each year it floods bad, yesterday it caught out what i think was a Merc, the water was that deep and fast flowing it moved the car, the only thing that stopped the car from vanishing downstream was some railings it wedged against, I'm not sure what happenned to the driver, I just hope he's ok, like I said the worrying thing is that after the flood the car had been taped off and was surrounded by police cars and police, I dread the thought if he'd tried to get out in that fast flowing water, I haven' heard of anyone going missing as yet so hopefully he was rescued from his motor.

I agree, a foolish act to drive through any flooded road

Thanks, Jim, for reminder it's not just the south coast rivers

Great Images.. Glad I never travelled to Asda  for shopping this week.

It is easy to underestimate the depth of water, but even easier to underestimate how low your vehicle's air intake is.

I sat at a flood all day and watched the level drop, also watched and laughed at those coming to grief ignoring the road closed signs.

After the level had dropped about a foot (was a 3hr diversion tp avoid the flood), i witnessed a ford fiesta get through the flood.  I thought, damn if a fiesta can do it my astra van can do it.  Not taking into account that the fiesta is actually quite a high car and the astra van very low in comparison.  In i went, then failed   Glad i filmed it in all honesty.

Not long after i stopped an off duty policeman came by in his Range Rover and pushed me out with his rubber bull bar.

As i had switched the van off as soon as i stopped, the van restarted 1st time once i was pushed out the other side. 

Watch and enjoy 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5WZKzh8l_s

 LLTNP 105m asl 

Thanks for the comments guys.

Glenogle, you mentioning the ford fiesta brings back memories of an incident during a much worse flood going back a number of years, the Frome river burst it's banks after hours of heavy rain, this flood was particular bad and a fairly rare one this deep, in the 34 years living in Frome has only flooded this deep maybe three or four times. On this day the road into town from the East side has to cross the river, the bridge is double arched and when the river floods it backs up behind the bridge and floods the road, this time it was at least 3ft deep on the road and rising. Me and quite a lot of spectators were watching the flood and grimacing at a few drivers trying their luck at getting through it, none did and ended up being thrown a line by a friend and towed out with his lorry, some vehicles had to be left and drivers sat on roofs because the current was too strong.

While still watching we noticed another vehicle coming towards us and was amazed at the fact all we could see was a roof and about 6 inches of the widscreen, the rest of the car was under water, when it emerged our side it turned out to be a little yellow mk1 fiesta, everyone cheered and applauded the stupid act and most gasped when a young lass got out, then retrieved a small baby from the back seat, she was crying and shaking like a leaf, she was asked why she drove through it and she said she thought it wasn't that deep and once she started was too affraid to stop. I can't to this day fathom out how that car came through that flood without flooding the engine, absolutely incredible and just thankful that they were both ok, the end result could have been very different.

Great post and good to hear your van restarted once you were out.

That's scary reading that. With water that deep the car could easily have been swept off the road - the rest one can only imagine.

You were very lucky. In the 2007 floods I drove my wife's Renault Clio through - well, not even a flood, really, just a large puddle, no more than kerb depth, maybe six inches deep at the most.

Went through with no problem, then less than a mile down the road, it conked out, totally dead. Water had got into the engine cylinders and hydrolocked it. Result: one new engine needed, not cheap!

It always astonishes me when I see people driving through floods with water up to the number plates, when a 6in-deep puddle killed our old car. I guess Clios aren't built for flooding!