Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Haven't seen greenbee post for a day. Hope her home hasn't been flooded.

Karmacat

Thread is really quiet! I'd like to think people are giving themselves a day off for Valentine's Day and its preps, but its much more likely that everyone's preparing for the next storm onslaught, I'm afraid.

I'm tidying and sorting fit to bust - realised that stuff I've had hanging around can go on top of a cupboard. This is financial prepping, as once I've done it, I can really get going with getting more income, breaking even again, and giving myself more opportunity for a cushion.

jk0

I thought this thing I just ordered might interest you guys:

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/hot-house-inset-stove-5kw-18212-150878

mardatha

Great new post on the Irish blog today GQ.

greenbee

GreyQueen wrote: »

Haven't seen greenbee post for a day. Hope her home hasn't been flooded.

I'm still here

Wednesday evening my brother came over with builders plastic sheeting (and kids..) and we re-sandbagged the garage with plastic behind it, as well as putting more shelving in the rafters so I could move stuff out of the way.

Yesterday crack of sparrow-wotsit he was here with a dozen bags of sharp sand intended for his garden in case I couldn't get out/everyone was sold out, so we finished sandbagging the garage (and I then remembered I needed stuff out of it, but it can wait...)

My hydropads were delivered yesterday about 9ish and as it wasn't raining I walked into the village, caught up on gossip/flooding details etc. Then I got a call to say my hydrosnakes were in stock in town. As levels had dropped and it was actually sunny, I took the chance, went and picked them up and also bought another 8 bags of sand.

So I think I now have just enough. rain is back, levels are rising, but I should have time to work out how to secure the front and back doors tomorrow (I have bits of wood and silicon sealant - sadly no expanding foam, and not much duct tape, but I do have another sheet of builders plastic!).

I'm continuing the slow move of stuff upstairs, but have got to the bitty bit, so progress is definitely slowing!

the_cake

Good luck greenbee, and all others threatened by rain, wind or just general problems ....

Cheapskate

Hope everyone in the path of any water is doing as well as can be! :eek: It's less windy than yesterday, but still wet and wild, and I've not slept much because of the noise of the wind coming down the chimneys.

Went to see my mum this morning (has mild dementia, I take her tablets round every day and check she's ok) to find next door's car a burnt out wreck, even a few plants singed in the garden, so it must have been fierce. The back windscreen was put through a few days ago, obv an escalation of "warnings" of some sort! :eek: We know he sells exotic tobacco products, has done for years, but I'm really concerned if things escalate - there are elderly neighbours on the other side, too - little toerag!!

To calm myself, I have spent lashings of money on a ready made sandwich and pud from m&s.

A xo

Frugalsod

Karmacat wrote: »

Thats making me think, about food security ... not only the crops that are being killed off by the floods, or frozen in the US, but also crops that are rotting, in waterlogged but not flooded fields. Bad news.

Longer term food security will be a real problem. With the banks now speculating more and more on food and hoarding it to drive up prices. Remember the banker who bought nearly all of the worlds chocolate last year? Also agricultural land is now a big target of investors who will want some extra returns so that could also mean higher prices.

Then finally how stretched many people are already in this country with needing hep from food banks. I do not see that improving for a number of years with even more benefit cuts.

[Deleted User]

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

had my new wind up radio as recommended by BB to hand and cards etc to entertain the kids. Then nothing happened.

Better that, than the other way round.

Charis

GreyQueen wrote: »

It's a mental leap to say to several millions of people that their paved-over gardens cause some forms of flooding because there are so many of them, and please dig them up and plant things instead.

To say to a landowner that they need to commit to planting trees, and willows, to slow down te rush of water. To say to some others, we won't defend this part of the country and your land, your home will be lost and you are now beggared and impoverished.

While I agree wholheartedly with most of your post I'm not sure that the odd patio or driveway will make all that much difference in terms of millions of tons of floodwater finding a place to go, and the alternative would be forcing everyone with a garden to have the expense of ripping up and replanting existing hard surfaces and coping with maintaining, or paying someone to maintain, the resulting shrubbery. We'd also find all the cars currently parked in garages or driveways would end up parked on the street. It could all be a waste of time as sodden ground will not absorb water anyway, and what is currently under concrete may already have absorbed water from higher ground. Clay soils and rock won't absorb water well and the speed at which the water is appearing is another factor. It's bubbling up through the tarmac and under railway lines that are a couple of hundred yards from the nearest river.

Think twice before planting willow near your home, peeps. It's tap roots make for the nearest water source and can cause havoc with your drains and sewers. Friends had to cut down old willows on their property that had blocked the sewer and were subsequently taken to court by neighbours who reckoned that after the trees were removed the subsequent 'heave' (moisture returning to the soil causing it it swell) had damaged their property.

One thing that would help enormously, given the speed with which the water floods the roads, is regular clearance of street drains and field ditches, which has been abandoned 'to save money'. In living memory local ditches were regularly cleared but this is no longer done. Building on flood plains is as sensible as building near the edge of a cliff or over old mine workings. Why is it still allowed? The unsophisticated, simple country folk of the previous centuries had far more common sense than our town planners.

Incidentally, the siting of our local storm drain is such that the water runs down our driveways with no hope of reaching it. If I had a rutted track instead of a drive it would mean I probably couldn't get out at all in the winter.