Flooding in the North of England

[Bardmaiden]

My city is currently underwater at the moment.

For most of the day the city centre had the phones and internet taken out because a major junction box was under two feet of water.

I am very lucky in the fact that I live in an unaffected area, I know a couple of friends who have had close calls but no one who has been flooded, poor guys

[Kristev]

May you and everyone you know stay perfectly safe.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Ah tha's northern,tha's a little bit of rain.Just cos you got it and Lancashire didn't

But stay safe and dry all of you in White Rose land.

[Food Lady]

I'm sorry to hear that. We're buried in heavy (weight-wise) snow. All I can say is that it's one of those weird El Nino years.

[Chromatix]

Lancashire did get some of the flooding - at least in the far northern reaches adjacent to Cumbria. It looks like my old house there avoided it, though, being sensibly out of the flood plain.

[Javarod]

STay safe, we're in the same boat over here (almost literally) in STL. We had 2 or 3 days where most of the interstates and some state highways were closed. Right now i can't ride my scooter to work because one route is closed to flooding, the other to the road buckling. There is a semi-legal route i can use to get there that doesn't much extend my commute, but because it goes through a school parking lot, i can't use it on the way home (3rd shifter, 2200 - 0700).

[Rapscallion]

I'm a bit upstream from Bardmaiden. There are areas near me where intelligent locals reckon a third of the businesses won't open again. It's not just the cost of getting back on their feet, it's the likelihood it will happen again in twelve months.

The local canal had barges left on locks, outside peoples' doors, on the towpath, and in woodland. An old bridge I've cycled under a few times has crumbled under the force of the water going through. A local bridge is currently unusable, and there's footage of Tadcaster Bridge just collapsing.

Bit of a bugger.

Rapscallion

[Chromatix]

Meanwhile in Finland, my bicycle decided that it hated the cold almost as much as Jester, and refused point-blank to engage the freewheel when I needed to go shopping in -25°C weather. I warmed it up indoors overnight, which managed to make it rideable for about 7 miles, which is one mile short of the nearest town.

I left it with a local shop for re-education, and called for a lift home with my shopping.

Meanwhile, the local motoring organisations are recommending people *not* to use their cars if they have an alternative. It's not that the roads themselves are dangerous, but that they're getting a huge number of call-outs for help with flat batteries.