The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

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DigForVictory wrote: »

We heard about those in Meadowhall in Sheffield as they were flooded in - I think if you must leave the home in very questionable weather, carrying a day's medication may be a comfort. It's Not Over Yet, either.

Little bit of over-egging the story there as there's a high level bridge out of centre up to the station whereby people could (in theory) exit the other side and just get a bus home. My understanding is that the dozens staying there overnight were out of town shoppers with no other place to go given the M1 junction nearby was closed, and the cops barred the exits and evacuating people up to Tyler Street would be too much like hard work...

Doncaster's going to get it today though as water passes down the catchment area

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Waitrose just started one of their 25% off 6 bottles offers. Of course if your favourite tipple was previously on offer, that's now full price again, but they have some nice stuff at £5.99 (own brand Pinot Noir is nice IMHO)

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Actually some you may remember me harping on about Waitrose Essential Mince Pies no longer being vegan. Well hopefully they've learned their lesson as there was a big stack of them this morning, all Yellow Sticker - never seen that before, in previous years when the pies were vegan, they could barely keep them in stock.

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Been thinking about this today, a general long term prepping caveat: Be careful where you pitch your tent. I was also quite surprised by some photos in the press of an old man on a flooded street trying to unblock a submerged drain. I'm 600ft above sea level, about 250ft above the nearest point of the River Sheaf and yet when I finally identified the stretch of road he was on, realised he was 50-100ft above us. When that particular road was straightened, I think just pre/post WWII the brook was culverted, bridge demolished and nearby wheel abandoned

thriftwizard

Unblocking a submerged drain during a flood, aged 85, was how my SiL's father literally caught his death of cold a few years back. He didn't actually die for another two weeks, having "taken a chill" which turned rapidly to pneumonia, so didn't go down in the statistics as a flood fatality, but he was otherwise hale & hearty & we're in no doubt that that was what killed him.

I'm a mere 30 feet above sea level, and not that far inland, close to a river that does flood, but hasn't come this far up in recorded history. Two of the biggish rivers nearby do have flood warnings, but ours doesn't - yet! Plenty more rain to come, though. We could all do with a break from it, and some nice crisp autumn weather - at the moment it's clear at night down here, so we are getting frosts, but majorly soggy by day!

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I think rivers that have been left to develop naturally (albeit maintained) are quite benign in general (although tell that to the poor woman who died at Rowsley). It's just when you mess with them, straighten them to increase flow (to power wheels for example), build on flood meadows, tarmac everything, cut all the trees down and then build flood defences that things tend to go wrong

Jazee

I'm also only 30 feet above sea level in a village where two main rivers meet. The flood defences have held up but there are some paths which are impassable. I think it's more to do with drains not coping with the amount of water on Thursday.

I also know of a weather related death, an elderly chap who thought it necessary to clear the snow off his drive even though he wasn't going anywhere and had heart failure from the exertion.

DigForVictory

Water is powerful stuff & it’s usually better with two. In America there are over a hundred deaths a year clearing cars - folk are so certain they go out not properly dressed, not properly equipped & completely unready to either warm up for cardio work first or come in part way through & defrost a bit.

Depending on website & postcode we’re between 650 & 810 feet above sea level, but all these slopes mean quite a lot of water goes past. When a drain got blocked, we had a couple of inches & rising up against the back wall & getting under the kitchen door. My husband lay in that to reach into the drain & clear it - and grinned it nearly ripped his arm off when the blocking material was seized, as the water headed for the least resistance at once! As he was already soaked, he then went shovelling the main road, lifting water-relocated stones the size of half bricks out to the enthusiastic hoots of relieved drivers who were afraid there were concealed hazards. Before he elected to stop & have a hot bath & hot drink, he grinned “free drive, love”. I “relocated” (hid) the shovel...

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If you've a few hours to spare, this interactive map is quite entertaining (overlaying 1900's OS maps onto satellite imagery) - this is where I'm getting my altitudes from
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=53.4174&lon=-1.4065&layers=6&right=BingHyb

DigForVictory

It’s impressive even on a small mobile!
Certainly going to be of interest to colleagues at work. Time spent on research is seldom wasted, after all.