Storm Babet

maxmycardagain

Gerry1 said:

mmmmikey said:

Gerry1 said:

Qyburn said:

The local authority and SSEN have issued advance warning of likely power cuts (among other possible impacts) over the next couple of days.

Red warning from the Met Office includes loss of power and mobile phone service; communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days.

Good luck if you're cursed with BT Digital Voice and can't dial 999 because your landline needs power, ditto you can't dial 999 from your mobile because the same power failure has knocked out your mobile phone masts.

Telephone cables are as likely to be brought down in a storm as electricity cables, and in that instance a mobile 'phone is your best bet. 

So I think you just to have to roll the dice and take your chances - and if you're particularly vulnerable make sure you have a backup plan such as asking a neighbour for help.

Obviously it depends on the locality but my dropwire has never been knocked out.  (It helps that the telegraph pole is at the corner of my front garden.)  But power failures certainly aren't unknown.  Copper landlines remain working for all calls (both outgoing and incoming) during power failures but DV lines are killed stone dead.

A mobile phone will be flat after a day or two, and even if the phone still has some charge it'll be no use whatsoever because the towers go down the moment the lights go out.

Asking a neighbour won't be much use if the house is on fire or you're having a stroke, heart attack or stroke.  Even if their property is immediately adjacent, and they answer the door at 3am, they'll be equally unable to call 999.

DV simply hasn't been thought through and its implementation will cause distress and tragedies sooner or later.

Breaker breaker 19 this heres the watery duck on the mickey 6, the tide is at Walsall

QrizB

Spoonie_Turtle said:

mmmmikey said:

Nasty stuff this yellow rain - has come through the roof and trashed the ceiling in my living room. 

What is yellow rain?

It's related to yellow snow, which we all know not to eat!

maxmycardagain said:

my sheds leaking
not the roof, its the side the rains hitting

I had a shed like that; the T&G shrank in the summer and gaps opened up between the boards.

Once it got wet again, the T&G swelled and closed the gaps. Mostly.

Ever since then I've kept my power tools in my house!

MultiFuelBurner said:

Qyburn said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

What makes me laugh is those that do live in risk areas that don't have any backups for power/water/food/heat and light and expect everything to be fixed immediately and help to arrive even sooner.

The push from central and local authority is for households to make their own provisions, and to plan for up to three days either cut off, or without power, or both.

That seems very sensible we could happily survive for a week probably 2 if needed and by survive I mean comfortably warm and with power for essentials.

Three days is a good starting point. FEMA in the US has similar recommendations and some useful resources:
https://www.noaa.gov/prepare-before-hurricane-season
(This is for hurricanes, but bad weather is bad weather - just keep in mind that the UK is colder than Florida!)

ArbitraryRandom

mmmmikey said:

Nasty stuff this yellow rain - has come through the roof and trashed the ceiling in my living room. Fortunately I realised what was happening quick enough to limit the damage to the ceiling. Rain has leaked through a valley in the roof. Have informed insurance company who are going to send a surveyor out to decide whether the issue is down to lack of maintenance or the stormy weather. Could go either way I guess - essentially the stormy weather has exposed an underlying problem (unknown to me which is why I haven't had anything done to it) with the valley. Buckets are in place - lots of cleaning to do now, not the day I had planned :-(

Be aware/careful when it eventually dries out - older plaster can absorb the water, swell, then crumble when it dries. More likely when it's a longer term leak, but can happen with a one off flooding as well. 

mmmmikey

ArbitraryRandom said:

mmmmikey said:

Nasty stuff this yellow rain - has come through the roof and trashed the ceiling in my living room. Fortunately I realised what was happening quick enough to limit the damage to the ceiling. Rain has leaked through a valley in the roof. Have informed insurance company who are going to send a surveyor out to decide whether the issue is down to lack of maintenance or the stormy weather. Could go either way I guess - essentially the stormy weather has exposed an underlying problem (unknown to me which is why I haven't had anything done to it) with the valley. Buckets are in place - lots of cleaning to do now, not the day I had planned :-(

Be aware/careful when it eventually dries out - older plaster can absorb the water, swell, then crumble when it dries. More likely when it's a longer term leak, but can happen with a one off flooding as well. 

Thanks for the tip. From what I can see, the leak is due to deterioration of the pointing at the edge of the valley which I suspect isn't going to be covered by the insurance. Probably been waiting to happen and just overwhelmed by the amount of rain. If that's the case fair enough to pay for it myself I guess because if I'd seen a minor leak I'd have had it repointed at my own cost anyway. The ceiling damage is about 1m x 1m and the plasterboard will have to be replaced. This probably would be covered by the insurance but it will be cheaper to do it myself than pay the excess. Something to tear me away from the computer and stop me over-analysing Agile rates I guess....

Qyburn

MultiFuelBurner said:

What makes me laugh is those that do live in risk areas that don't have any backups for power/water/food/heat and light and expect everything to be fixed immediately and help to arrive even sooner.

Just speaking about electricity, remember we've had something like 25 years in which power cuts of more than an hour or so were virtually unknown. I can't remember experiencing a multi day cut since mid '90s, or of hearing of one in the region. Together with the encouragement to convert to everything electric, it's no real surprise that people weren't prepared. 

Even on here when I was posting about solar/battery options, lots of posts wondering why I was expecting power cuts.

SAC2334

Storm Babet is now becoming  to be a huge demand on the Enviromental Agency because of the sheer size of the rainfall area  all  along the  east coast from the Midlands to North East Scotland.
A storm which has moved up from its origins in African Atlantic  holds more water with rising sea temperatures .My area is now on a very worrying rising river levels all approaching their record levels at this moment possibly flooding viilages . It has taken my area by surprise .

Qyburn

According to the Met Office we're due over 68mm over Saturday, XC Weather a bit less, but wind should be a bit less than Thursday.

mmmmikey

Rain here eased overnight and has all but stopped now. The buckets in the loft did their job and were only half full when I got up at the crack of dawn to empty them. Now just need to find a roofer who isn't inundated with work.

My mum lives on the banks of the river Severn in Shrewsbury in a new build flat on the site of the old Gay Meadow football stadium. Carefully designed so the inevitable flood water will fill the central garden area without affecting the flats. A bit strange to see swans swimming in the garden but very effective solution to the flooding issue.

Good luck to those still affected.

mmmmikey

Hmmmmm

The assessor has declined my claim on the basis that according to Tesco Home Insurance Storm Babet wasn't actually a storm where I am despite the floods, damage to multiple houses locally and so on. The wind needed to reach 50mph and only reached 47mph and there had to be 25mm of rain in an hour whereas there was only 17mm so sorry, nothing they can do! I had already expected them to decline the claim for the roof work as it doesn't appear damaged - it was just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rain - fair enough. I'm getting quotes to have it upgraded rather than fixed. I can probably do the lounge ceiling myself when I decorate except for the plastering for not much more than the cost of the excess so not worth arguing about. But I'll be cancelling my Tesco Home Insurance that's for sure as who knows how many other gotchas there are in the detail.

Worth checking your own home insurance and see how it defines a storm.

MultiFuelBurner

mmmmikey said:

Hmmmmm

The assessor has declined my claim on the basis that according to Tesco Home Insurance Storm Babet wasn't actually a storm where I am despite the floods, damage to multiple houses locally and so on. The wind needed to reach 50mph and only reached 47mph and there had to be 25mm of rain in an hour whereas there was only 17mm so sorry, nothing they can do! I had already expected them to decline the claim for the roof work as it doesn't appear damaged - it was just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rain - fair enough. I'm getting quotes to have it upgraded rather than fixed. I can probably do the lounge ceiling myself when I decorate except for the plastering for not much more than the cost of the excess so not worth arguing about. But I'll be cancelling my Tesco Home Insurance that's for sure as who knows how many other gotchas there are in the detail.

Worth checking your own home insurance and see how it defines a storm.

Ah the Beaufort scale.