By 8:30am this morning, as rain continued to fall heavily, the water was half covering the O of Bristol at the Iron Bridge.
Water has gone round the flood barrier at St Helens Mill. So the water level is up from yesterday at 2:30pm.
A large puddle has formed at the bottom of Preston Road, covering the kerbs.
Abingdon has been very wise in not allowing building on the flood plane (football fields) on the bank of the river. The Drayton Road was flooded across one lane this morning. We have a new peril. Developers building on fields forcing the water to run off. This was one of the concerns raised about the 160 houses to be built along the Drayton Road in South Abingdon.
Don’t worry Janet – the new crossing across Ock Street will remedy all of this.
Hi Daniel. Your comment gave me a good giggle. Janet
I lived in St Helen’s Mill until recently (now left Oxfordshire) and rolled my eyes when I saw access to it completely cut off again here – it’s entirely preventable by building another temporary barrier at the near end of the railings; as it is, the barrier there currently is is rendered useless by water pouring into the dip in the driveway from the other side, and petering out just centimetres further up. It really isn’t rocket science, and makes life for everyone living on the Ock side of the mill miserable – wading through almost kneedeep water just to get in and out of their flats. Glad to not be part of it anymore.
My Oceanography Tutor used to keep a file of newspaper cuttings of the “family swept off breakwater by rogue wave” type. He used to rant that they suffered from the Darwin Effect by not acknowledging the probability of a “statistically-predictable large wave”. I tend to agree with him whenever reality fails to intrude elsewhere.
Whatever barriers are there to prevent inflow, a “dip in the driveway” will fill up whenever there is nowhere for the water to run.
On the subject of Rocket Science, anything below surface level in a Flood Plain will get wet sooner or later. Millstream Court and several other bulidings near the iron bridge are built on stilts so that floodwater can pass unimpeded undeneath. From a somewhat earlier time, the footpath to Culham is an elevated causway – I wonder why ? Anyone who designs/builds beside one of the largest rivers, take note.
well.. i personally agree with the remedy of a barrier across that ‘dip in the drive’ i also agree with a barrier all the way to the iron bridge across the entrance to the ock.. just 1ft of wall would make a difference for many residents… and a builder could do that in a few days in the summer whern the weather is nice… i know several people who would do it if it was allowed! and by way of drainage in the dip even if a barrier was there.. there’s plenty of grass around that section sdo that if it did rain hard and long enough to make a puddle, a little dip on one side in the path towards the grass would allow it to flow off into the ground..