h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wasn't disagreeing with you, Pin. I meant the folk who probably can't afford insurance (householders) or who live in areas where they can't get insurance, I would happily contribute towards a fund to help these poor people start again.

Count on me: I'll help you with any Entry you want

*saying prayers for the safety of h2g2 researchers from behind the plant in the corner*
(just announcing my presence)

As an exile down here on the south coast, I'm feeling somewhat disconnected with the whole thing. There've been pictures of places I know and love under water, yet my experience of the whole disaster that has hit Sheffield and the swath of country from Yorkshire to the West Country was that it was a bit damp and cloudy on Wednesday afternoon.

I hope the recovery and repair is making some progress, and you and my city are in my thoughts



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>> I saw Hillsborough "swimming pool" on the news and couldn't believe my eyes.

Ah well, every cloud has a silver lining...

@ GD

*fights the urge to *

Just to add to the side of that one, the standing joke at the expense of Pigs at the moment is to remind them that they can't buy a season ticket if they've got a verruca

I got a call from my Mum in that night - could I ring my sister, who's stuck in her car with water rushing past etc.

My sister was on her way to work in Chesterfield. It took her 6 hours instead of 40 mins to get there (and then she only got let through as she was in her hospital uniform). When she got there, bless her, she went back out in a mountain rescue vehicle to assist.

I hear the evacuated folks from below Ulley res are camped in my old school hall. It does make one feel very connected but at the same time very helpless, watching places you know so well on TV.

Chin up, Pin (and I do hope the bench thing is OK, it's a gift, there shouldn't be such agonising over a hue)

Sorry to hear about all this Pin and I hope things come right.

Lazy journalism you're quite right about, by the way - I grew up in Worcester and, if it rains, there's camera crews, usually heading for Upton-upon-Severn (which is underwater if it's raining in Worcester). Thing is, for a part of the world that does get flooded regularly, the council still seems to respond as though it were as unforeseeable as Martians landing. Last week the extremely expensive flood defences recently forked out for mysteriously failed to appear having been 'mislaid' somewhere.

Where these things don't happen regularly, it's much worse I know

'Thing is, for a part of the world that does get flooded regularly, the council still seems to respond as though it were as unforeseeable as Martians landing.'

My Dad used to make a similar point about this country's reaction to snowfall.

Too early to rejoice just yet, but Kelham is looking more hopeful.

I've been hearing all sorts of horror stories of late, but a reliable one today suggests that nothing will be moved and all the key exhibits will be back. The Engine itself might well turn this year.

More when I know more.

Glad to hear that, and fingers crossed.

I hope the businesses/workshops down there are recovering too. Cleaning up and recovery don't make the news very often.

Things are better on the whole than looked possible a month ago, but there are still victims. Not every firm can afford to publicise their difficulties, of course. I suspect that quite a few are reticent but nonetheless in serious trouble.

Funny how it all moved south. How the hell did they manage to lose a water treatment plant down there? Apart from that piece of self-inflicted misery, I think the Beeb and their like got it way out of proportion last week. They should all be forcibly relocated to Hull.

I heard from a reliable source that the insurance claims from the June 25th northern spate are fully three times the level of that more recent Severn dampening.

Talking of Hull, AB gets their TV news. He told me that Prescott visited within the first hours, about four days before he was effectively written out of political history. A week later, the local press were complaining that no Government ministers had been, which seems a bit harsh on their very own former Deputy Prime Minister.

Pin, I'm glad the recovery process has begun. These things take a long time. i certainly wish everyone there well.

The Severn didn't behave in the usual way, ie flooding up here first. Maybe that was part of the reason.

They said on the radio they usually get the timing for flooding down river from what happens further north. Ironbridge didn't even put their flood defences up - rather lucky really, since they ended up as part of the defence round the Wallam power station.

If that power station had gone, it would have been pretty serious. I didn't think that bit was out of proportion. But Ulley dam threatened a power station didn't it?

Of course Shropshire, Worcestershire etc are now all suffering from that media coverage - no tourists.

Oh, just remembered one bit of coverage that just got ridiculous - the guy outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

It was 'Oh, no! The theatre's got ..... a bit of damp in one cellar' And, they've cancelled a performance!'

Try as he would, the BBC reporter could not get any drama out of the RSC guy.

Yeah, that RSC piece was abysmal journalism. The modern TV-Beeb has a too-frequent tendency to turn into a sound-and-vision version of the Daily Mail.

The way this armchair-flood-expert sees it is that if you need to defend an installation like say a water-treatment plant or a power station, you just make sure it has a fairly robust wall right round it, thoroughly sandbag the gates and caulk the drains, stick a couple of big diesel pumps inside the perimeter and sling out all the water as fast as it comes in. Keep doing this for days if necessary, with chopper refuelling courtesy of the RAF.

No big. You can only really go wrong if some idiot decides instead to deploy the biggest pumps in an obviously hopeless attempt to defend a residential area full of Daily Mail readers.

Protecting a half-collapsed dam with ten million tonnes of water behind it, my dears, is a wholly different matter. If they'd lost Ulley, power would still be out in a hundred thousand homes, two thousand would have been levelled and there'd be a half mile long bit of the M1 missing. Even the BBC might have noticed.

Now just don't start me off on Flixboro v Buncefield, like some Southern Jessie did the other week.

Pin

Oh, Hi Hyp and GB. Don't mind the seal. Vitriol is what he does best.

From what I heard and read, Ulley ended up with 19 heavy duty pumps, Wallam with 34 despite the flooding being more extensive.

This armchair expert would like to point out you don't even need that robust a wall for protection. Just a set of raked metal frames.

Severe Steam Warning Alert:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/midlands/567079/567090/893833/894284/?version=1&lang=_e

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/northeast/411697/411714/757017/?version=1&lang=_e

Compare and contrast?

Just saw this thread (trying to round up Sheffield researchers for a meet in October - but after the verucca comment I think I'll stay here )

how are things now?

Steady lass.

(I don't mean you be steady. I mean things are steady)

In Sheffield, it was largely commercial losses Don-side. It's Rotherham, Barnsley and Donny where most of the domestic grief drags on.