Preparedness for when

mardatha

That's unreal - blocks of flats where the top floor is still below flood level?? Is London built in a hole in the ground or something - that sounds mad to me. Or is the Thames rising? That must be very worrying for people there

ivyleaf

Alloneword I assume you're somewhere east of the Barrier in that delightful area referred to as the Thames Gateway?

Frugalsod

Alloneword wrote: »

It's not just heavy rain i have to worry about there is something called storm surge, which if my understanding is right is a mass of water coming down the east coast and being forced up the river and as the crow flies i'm very close to the barrier.

Yes but storm surges require a very specific set of circumstances and we have better plans for them now than we did in the 50's and 60's. General flood planning will still be good for you, though you will definitely need a bug out location to deal with the storm surge. It could be a friend or family out of the area or even a hotel.

Alloneword wrote: »

Right now i don't have ANY insurance, I'm social housing (scum of the earth i know) so no point in buildings insurance, contents is something to look at, the way i am setup here is a small block of flat's (4) and i'm on the top floor however that still leaves me under river level, I do have a loft but no point in putting anything up there as it would be under water anyway

I never think of social housing occupants as scum of the earth. Scum rises to the top, so I think our leaders fit that description far better.

Top floor does mean that the flood barriers might not be viable though it might be good for the landlords to install them for minor floods. Contents insurance is the best option as total loss might be more likely if there was a storm surge. Still not very likely but worth having because of the higher risk of total loss overall.

Alloneword wrote: »

Done that along with photocopies of bigger items like TV, white goods etc, insurance quotes were not that bad IMO so it is something i will get before the end of the year.

Good luck with that. The rest of the MSE site will be useful in finding good insurance quotes.

Alloneword wrote: »

The bike in question has panniers and they are already packed and in the loft, so if the SHTF then it's just a case of whip them down and instal and go, still loads more to do like source tent/sleeping bags/some kind of stove etc but i have spent a shed loads so trying to stop spending for a month or so if i can.

Concentrate on tent as shelter is more important than food in initial crisis. Look to get a fly first tent. This means that you can set it up and then keep the inner tent dry, as you will probably have to set it up in the rain.

It might be better to get a slightly more expensive 4 season tent as you never know when it will strike, and you will have some space inside for keeping whatever you have with you. You can at least still go camping with it for fun even if the surge never comes.

Stoves come in so many forms so if you think a gas stove works best for you then get that. Though alcohol stoves have lots of flexibility in that you can get fuel in more locations.

Karmacat

Alloneword wrote: »

... the way i am setup here is a small block of flat's (4) and i'm on the top floor however that still leaves me under river level, I do have a loft but no point in putting anything up there as it would be under water anyway

Not necessarily ... its not worth putting your lives at risk to put stuff up there, but the flood *might* not reach to your loft, if it were to happen. You do sound *horrendously* low, though

The bike in question has panniers and they are already packed and in the loft, so if the SHTF then it's just a case of whip them down and instal and go, still loads more to do like source tent/sleeping bags/some kind of stove etc but i have spent a shed loads so trying to stop spending for a month or so if i can.

Bike panniers ready packed are a really good idea!

As far as the want a stove/need to stop spending combo is concerned - do you have an electric drill? If you do, and you have good-sized food tins (tinned potatoes for instance, from Asda not Sainsbo, they line theirs with plastic now) you could make a stove that uses tea candles (some use veg oil) for nothing - this is a thread on bushcraft uk as an example http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10278 but there's dozens out there once you start searching, including little rocket stoves from cans, also free. A lot of them seem to be madly complicated, but the principle seems sound. Just need to find the right one for you, and you're away.

Sure i have first hand experience of this when 7/7 took place i was indoors and the Mrs was on a bus coming home from work, as it turned out she was miles from the locations that kicked off but we didn't know that at the time and trying to get through to her was a nightmare but it worked which is why she has a phone with 2 sims on differnt networks and i have 3 sims here on 3 differnt networks, but they will all go down for some time that is for sure, but i'm not too worried about that as so long as she and i are together were not worried about family or anything.

I've got to catch myself up on that!

Sod it bought the book 2nd hand of ebay for less then £3

That's what I did - seller sent it off yesterday, I'm hoping it arrives today

AnimalTribe

I've just found a site called thefirestarter targeted at early retirement but after a brief look I think people here might like it. The first thing I found was a reference to downloading magazines for free from your local library (if they have Zinio). Luckily mine does - the free magazines info is halfway down the page. Here's the link:

http://thefirestarter.co.uk/download-free-magazines-library-zinio/

RAS

I used to live in a city that flooded several times a year for millennia. Consequently most of the buildings were designed with usable accommodation above the flood line and the few properties that flood regularly have flag floors, no plaster, high level electrics and removable /floatable furniture.

Then the Victorians decided to build on a low lying area behind an embankment. Which worked until the war when meadows upstream were ploughed and farmers did not want winter wheat under water. When I first moved there, the embankment had been topped three times in two years and very few people were prepared to buy or rent in the area.

The other area which flooded frequently was up upstream on a small tributary. When the main river was in flood not only was the water in the tributary unable to escape, but the floodwaters backed up the beck and wreaked havoc a couple of miles up-stream.

I lived a lot closer to the river and even when it flooded the gardens at the end of the street the water was 6 feet below the house level. I could not however get into the city on any of my three normal routes and had to divert in land. The first thing I always did on getting off the train when it had rained was to check the river height and work out whether I could use the river walk or take the streets just behind. That time, those were flooded as well.

The embankment protecting the Victorian terraces was improved but in the worst year it was supplemented by a foot high wall of sandbags. The river was 1 centimetre below the highest historically recorded level for days and 1 centimetre below the top of the sandbags.

The solution to the tributary was interesting; one of the times when a local community enraged by duff schemes produced in days a better option than years of design by specialist engineers. The original plan was a long 10 metre high wall dominating the riverside behind which a barrier prevented the river backing up the tributary and a pumping station forced water from the tributary into the main river.

Once the local papers published an image all hell let loose. The community contained engineers and architects and community activists. When the Town Hall meeting was held 10 days later, they presented several hundred people with a plan that moved the wall back from the river, relocated the barrier slightly, reduced the visible mass, still did the job and actually cost less money. A certain amount of humble pie was eaten that night.

However all that work then made a small area upstream that had been safe vulnerable to flooding, so additional work had to be down there.

RAS

Alloneword

If it is going to take 20 minutes to get to high ground, I think you might want to consider:

And inflatable canoe??? either to ride or to take the panniers as they will start to take in water and obstruct your movement when it is less than 30 centimetres high.

Some sort of flotation device for the bike even if only kiddies arm bands that can be attached below the seat and to the handbars? So that if you are in deeper water you can float or tow it.

Think also about what you might wear; wool and some modern fabrics keep you warm even when wet; cotton and some other modern fabric lead to hypothermia at frightening speeds.

Karmacat

RAS wrote: »

Think also about what you might wear; wool and some modern fabrics keep you warm even when wet; cotton and some other modern fabric lead to hypothermia at frightening speeds.

Thats a really good point ... I have a wool allergy ...

RAS

Karmacat wrote: »

Thats a really good point ... I have a wool allergy ...

So you need to know where your base layers are kept (preferably an old set in your BOP).

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

Mar, the Thames as it passes through London is a mature river in its final meander and it curves to and fro like a snake. Lots of areas which are now under buildings were marshland not too far back in time, hence alloneword knowing he lives below river level - there are places when the land is well below the embankments and walls edging the Thames.

The North Sea storm surge is a rare confluence of specific sets of weather. It is the basic scenario in Flood (the book). The potted version of the storm surge is a wall of water moving down the east coast of the UK; Scotland, then England, until it reaches the Thames Estuary, where it goes up, whilst meeting the river's flow (and its many tributaries' outflow) coming down. Which is where it quickly gets into ho-lee s**t territory.

I was staying in an east coast resort in the early 1980s when a small storm surge came down the north sea and funnelled up that estuary. Part of the town flooded and there were ships still on their mooring chains sitting upright on the quays where they'd been lifted and dumped. Small boats were every which way inc dumped in the streets. And I saw a JCB digger upside down on a building site where the force of the water had dumped it on its roof......... eek. We were boggling as we looked around the following morning. Re-afirmed my desire never to live on the coast.

And they still had the wartime air raid sirens then, and they went off in the mid-evening to alert the town, and it's the most sinister, blood-chilling sound IRL, you've heard it in films etc, but it's something else to hear it for real. We thought it was the four minute (nuclear) warning for a few scary minutes until a local told us it was the flood warning. No one got much sleep that night.

http://www.storm-surge.info/north-sea-flood-1953

It takes several hours for the water to come down the North Sea, there are sensors, it isn't going to be a surprise to TPTB. What you have to consider is their reaction to the news. Would they pre-emptively close inbound commuter traffic to London, to minimize the amount of people in harm's way? Close schools, theatres, sports and concert venues? And run the risk of causing multiple millions of losses, especially if its a false alarm? Would they order an evacuation, and are they prepared to use force if necessary? Will the communications be in the many languages spoken in London, or will you have some residents and tourists unable to understand emergency directives?

And not to be London-centric, before it reached the Thames, there are lots of places on the east coast where the land is flattish and highly-vulnerable to flooding.