Anyone else got a sudden case of rising damp?

The Lot at La Roque Bouillac from chez nous

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We certainly have a lot of it here in Shrewsbury. I’ve never seen the River Severn as high as it was last week.

That’s a lot of water :flushed: hope yourself and your property are ok.

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Not the first time I’ve seen that road flooded, know exactly where you are now! Carmaux flooded too.

Wow! Not near a river so not sure but it hasn’t stopped raining here for days and heavy solid rain too.

Just come in from putting a line of 200mm blocks along the river bank, trying to slow the flow across part of the garden to stop it getting washed away. I’ll get a pic tomorrow , too dark now.

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quote=“Griffin36, post:3, topic:33616, full:true”]
That’s a lot of water :flushed: hope yourself and your property are ok.
[/quote]

Thanks. Fortunately because our house is one of the oldest in the village the builders were able to grab a prime site on top of a schist outcrop, so we should be OK. but we’ve several friends in the village and upstream who are less fortunate.

Some official person came round early this morning before I got upI and told my wife to move our car to high ground at the other end of the village. I was so angry when I found out because I knew we’d be cut off from the car if the water continued to rise. Eventually had to put on a pair of shorts and trekking sandals, then wade though hundreds of metres of icy cold water to get to the car, then drive a thirteen kilometres circular route to get it to a safe spot on our side of the village.

My half-hour drive to work is about 40% under water so I’m having to take the long way round, very irritating.

Flooding all over the place around us in 47. The Séoune has broken its banks in a number of places east of Agen. While we have lefty of water running downhill past our place, at least it’s running to somewhere else.

The Dronne in our village and the next door one has burst its banks but the roads are not affected yet. It is shopping day so as usual I took the dogs with me as, on the way home, we walk in the river field.

The river was twice as wide as normal and flowing very fast and I couldn’t even recognise the spot where I usually walk down to watch it for a while. Fortunately neither of the dogs fancied a swim. :slightly_smiling_face:

Just a word of warning to anyone who, on seeing the water level on a road only about 2 or 3 feet deep and apparently easily forded in a car, think again. You might force your way through but on the other hand you cannot see what obstructions, debris etc., are hidden from view.

Many years ago I was driving my artic through Matlock in similar conditions. I was sure I could get through and was doing well when suddenly I was brought to an abrupt halt. I had hit a large section of wall washed into the road. I manage to get from the cab to the empty trailer and from there jump to a garden wall which was clear of the flood. I was told by the boss to get a lift out of town where a mate of his had a heavy reccer and hitched a lift up there. He refused for exactly the reason that had foiled me, so I hitched back to find that my wagon was now parked to one side clear of the flood. :astonished:

Very good? Well no, the back of the cab was caved in where the bucket of the giant digger sent by the council to clear the road had pushed it aside. :frowning_face:

The Garonne flood plain lunchtime today - water as far as the eye can see. Over 9 meters. Just to give context, back in the second week in January it was around 1.2 meters. Looks to be heading for 9.5 tonight.

This is the fourth time we’ve seen what was supposed to be a “once in a lifetime event” in the last 13 years. Fortunately we live up in the hills above the plain. Older houses on the plain itself are all built on mounds and the basement tends to be just utility rooms with the ground floor even higher, up steps. Even so, residents had hooks in the ceilings so they could raise their furniture on pulleys above the flood water.

Gosh Sue, that is scary! I remember us falling in love with an old Queenslander, I would have bought it in a flash but the man shape spotted an old flood map and it had previosuly been flooded. Years later we were pleased as the whole of Maryborough river burst / flooded even worse so we probably would have lost that house!

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Bloody hell Tory, you’ve got to watch those old buggers. :wink: :roll_eyes:

On my way back from a couple of years in the north, Townsville and Mackay, with a mate in his ute we were stopped by a raging torrent in south Queensland. Marooned there for several days a helicopter arrived and lowered some grub to us. There was quite a bunch sleeping on the floor of a village hall.

Then later on I took a break from taxi driving in Sydney heading west to Broken Hill and then down to Melbourne. We were very lucky to get through, the country roads were seas of mud and we dodged and slid around several jacknifed artics, all the while whoever was passenger operating the failed windscreen wipers by hand after dismantling part of the dashboard.

Who would have thought, coming from such a wet country as Britain, indeed from Manchester, that my most serious flood experiences would have been in one of the driest countries on earth? :laughing:

@SuePJ Even so, residents had hooks in the ceilings so they could raise their furniture on pulleys above the flood water.

What a brilliant idea, I wonder how many other people have thought of such a thing. If I ever lived in a flood threatened area I think that I would make sure it was at least 2 story and had cooking facilities upstairs, just in case.

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Never seen it this bad … Marmande Lot-et-Garonne

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Lot-et-Garonne now on red alert.

This was higher up the Lot at Douelle. The pleasure boat company Le Boat has a marina there. (Or rather did have)

Hope things have not got worse for you Mark

Thanks ,

Fortunately the river dropped overnight, but of course as your video show all too well, our flood then became someone else’s bigger problem.

Nevertheless, I want to be prepared for more severe floods in future winters. By coincidence we’ve just received the results of a free flood vulnerability survey of the house that was carried out a couple of months ago and am now investigating anti-inondation kits. We just need one 2m wide removable barrier and everything should be well protected.

Does anyone have one of these and has it been tested in action?

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In the light of the last few days are they going to have to revise it?

No, the village was much more badly flooded in 2003, when the water was over 2m deep at the lowest point on the road - there’s a marker showing the height of the various floods.

However, the guys who assessed our house hadn’t realised that the road immediately in front of it is about a metre higher than at the point of the worst flooding, so we’ve actually got a 50% greater margin of safety. Nevertheless, I like the idea of a barrier one can just put in place when the water’s rising, particualrly at night - more chance of a decent sleep.

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Had a day without rain yesterday, orange sky this morning and now its raining mud!