Road Closed

[puddleshark]

Storm Chandra broke several rainfall records in Dorset. Evershot saw a very impressive 55mm of rain within twenty-four hours. And this all falling on already-saturated ground. Took a walk by Stoborough village and the meadows at Wareham to photograph the floods.




The local flood barrier failed completely this time. I feel so sorry for the people living in the cottages. The "once-in-a-lifetime" floods, we seem to be getting them every year now.




Sandbags.


Heron.








These meadows have always flooded in winter - it's how the Isle of Purbeck gets its name. But the water levels this year are as high as I can ever remember.

Had to work from home yesterday and today, as so many roads were closed due to flooding. I think the water has receded a bit today though, and the traffic seems to be moving again. Hope it will stop raining for a few days...

Comments

[larryhammer]

That is a very closed road, yup.

[asakiyume]

Hahahaha, exactly my thought, seeing the first photo.

[puddleshark]

Yup. Unless you own an amphibious vehicle.

[bunn]

The forlorn 'for sale' sign. :-(

Dramatic photos!

[puddleshark]

Yes. Selling a house is hard enough. And now this happens.

All the years I have been living here, I've never known this much flooding.

[heleninwales]

Oh, heavens! You really have had a lot of rain. We must have just caught the edge of the storm because all we had was wind and the sort of heavy rain that's pretty normal for NW Wales.

[puddleshark]

We had already had a wet January before Storm Chandra hit, with the rivers up over their banks. Now the flooding is the worst I've ever known it.

[house_wren]

When I read the news in The Guardian about the flooding in Dorset, I thought of you. I hope the rain stops and that damages are quickly repaired.

Where I live we also have had repeated years of 'once in a lifetime' floods. It's exhausting.

[puddleshark]

Thank you. There's more rain coming in tonight, which is not good news...

Yes. And there are places flooding here now that have never been affected by floods in the past, not in living memory. It's scary.

[asakiyume]

Yowzers! Yes I guess that road really IS closed! I hope the pub will be okay; I know water damage is a terrible thing.

[puddleshark]

I'm hoping the King's Arms escaped the worst of the flooding - they seem to have had their sandbags at the ready. But their entire car park had turned into a lake. :-(

[loganberrybunny]

Oof, temporary barriers failing is one of the worst things of all in a flood. We had it happen here in Bewdley a few years ago and it was devastating. (They were overtopped rather than failed as such, but the effect was the same.)

[puddleshark]

The South Causeway from Wareham is closed due to flooding at some point every winter, but I've never seen the water up to this level before. The temporary barrier was completely overwhelmed, and there was water gushing up from the drains on the other side of it.

I saw your picture of the flood level markers at Bewdley. That is serious, serious flooding. I hope the new defences do their job well.

[loganberrybunny]

So far so good. No major floods yet this winter, and I hope it stays that way, but if not we'll see.

[watervole]

The old Roman Fort near Wimborne was named 'Lake Gates'. I now understand why. The fields there are all one great lake right now.

[puddleshark]

Yes. It has been one of those winters when you get to see the Dorset landscape as it was, historically, in winter. Parts of it very, very cut off.

[changeling72]

Fortunately, the trains were running at least between Weymouth and Bournemouth, so I was able to get into work every day this week. DM did pick me up from Wareham yesterday, however, as I would have had to wait another half an hour for a train to Wool. Fingers-crossed I can get home this afternoon!

I think one really has to take into account flood plains and general proximity to water when house-hunting nowadays. As you say, once in a generation floods seem to be an annual event. I'm so glad that the water meadow opposite me drops away from the road. Even so, it does make one wonder.

[puddleshark]

It's a relief that the mainline between Bournemouth and Weymouth wasn't affected. Where it runs by Poole Harbour, it must be quite vulnerable to high water.

No-one has been quite daft enough to build on those water meadows, thank goodness, so there's plenty of land there for the water to spread across and drain away.

[torkell]

This is what happened in Wallington on Tuesday...

[puddleshark]

Eek. Talk about flash flooding! The line on that graph is scarily steep.