Somerset now under water

[OwlHoot]

They will be stamping their webbed feet in fury!!

If they have webbed feet in Somerset, what do they have in Devon where you live? Webbed feet with six toes on each

(The property I've made an offer on in North Devon adjoins the cutting of a disused railway line, so not much chance of flood there.)

[malvolio]

£40 worth of damage now reported

Yeah, f***ing hilarious. About 30 farms under water for the last 7 weeks, each is losing around £200k directly and probably the same again trying to recover the land and restock

[Ticktock]

I think the stat given earlier was something along the lines of 5000 homes flooded in the UK, 65 of those are in Somerset.

Yes, by homes they exclude commercial properties, farmland, etc, but at first glance the level of attention being given to Somerset does seem a little disproportionate.

[ASB]

I think the stat given earlier was something along the lines of 5000 homes flooded in the UK, 65 of those are in Somerset.

Yes, by homes they exclude commercial properties, farmland, etc, but at first glance the level of attention being given to Somerset does seem a little disproportionate.

Having lived in the levels for 25 odd years it is somewhat worse than normal. Was in Bridgwater yesterday and the Parrett was looking a bit threatening.

[Bacchus]

Down the hill from me.

BBC News - Datchet in Berkshire flooded as Thames rises

maybe it'll teach the smug ones living by the Thames is a bad idea.

ah, the twisted ramblings of a loser who can't afford a house by the river!

Probably hasn't even got a yacht. Why do we let this riff-raff post on a contractor forum? Shouldn't there be some kind of membership criterion?

As one of the smug ones, I still wouldn't change it for a house in Mundane Street

[Bacchus]

Having lived in the levels for 25 odd years it is somewhat worse than normal. Was in Bridgwater yesterday and the Parrett was looking a bit threatening.

Parretts can be nasty little feckers; hell of a beak on them!

[malvolio]

I think the stat given earlier was something along the lines of 5000 homes flooded in the UK, 65 of those are in Somerset.

Yes, by homes they exclude commercial properties, farmland, etc, but at first glance the level of attention being given to Somerset does seem a little disproportionate.

Glance a little harder. 5000 for a few days, 65 for seven weeks, two entire villages evacuated and many local businesses closing down, so not all that disproportionate.

"Disproportionate" is spending £35m on a coastal bird sanctuary when not spending £3m keeping the Levels drained. How much wildlife has been wiped out by that decision, I wonder...

But it's only Wurzel country. Nowhere important or productive like Datchet, for example.

[ASB]

Yeah, f***ing hilarious. About 30 farms under water for the last 7 weeks, each is losing around £200k directly and probably the same again trying to recover the land and restock

I question those numbers. Friend of mine reckons it costs him about 30k a time. Most years of course.

Also there is policy to allow farmland to flood given most of the farmland is lower lying. The belief is the overall impact is lower. Good dredging improve drainage of the fields, overwhelms the rhynes and causes bigger problems at the pinch points.

Whether or not that is the right balance is a different matter; though in my vicinity the agricultural community do their own dredging. My rhynes got dredged about once per decade.

[Bacchus]

Yeah, f***ing hilarious. About 30 farms under water for the last 7 weeks, each is losing around £200k directly and probably the same again trying to recover the land and restock

My heart goes out to these folk, and the ones on the coast who have been battered by storm after storm. It's pretty bad here in Surrey at the moment, but the biggest risk really is wet feet (actually that's not quite true, there are some people seriously at risk, my elderly next door neighbour was helped to "safety" on Saturday by the fire brigade/police - gave me quite a turn as they parked in my drive...)

I don't know what the cost is in $, but it takes quite an emotional toll too.

[tarbera]

Why

Yeah, f***ing hilarious. About 30 farms under water for the last 7 weeks, each is losing around £200k directly and probably the same again trying to recover the land and restock

There own fault for building farms on a flood plain then !!!!

That's like 1 house on the Thames value, Somerset should be abandoned to save London.