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On the 20th July 2007 the heavens opened across much of the UK and it rained for almost 24 hours. As many of you will remember Gloucestershire was one of the worst effected areas, with flooding in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury. On that day, one year ago, thousands of people were trapped in buildings and stranded in cars due to flash flooding. The motorway through the County was closed due to the amount of traffic that had become gridlocked. We lost our water supply for nearly two weeks (remember the bowsers?), 100's and 100's of homes and business were flooded and 500,000 people were nearly without electricity. The Walham Power Station came within an inch of being swamped, but thanks to the round the clock efforts of the emergency services and army the station was saved. If it had of flooded there were plans in place to evacuate 500,000 Gloucestershire residents to surrounding counties. That would have been scary to say the least!The photo shows the River Chelt as it flows through Sandford Park. It then carries on under the towns streets. As you can see it's more like a stream than a river, its only about a foot deep here, but last year it was a different story. Click here to see for yourself. (In the video you can see the Weathered Man from the other day.)
They say it was a once in a hundred year flood. Lets hope so!
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5 comments:
Oh wow, the park looked more like a lake! You could hardly even see where your little stream should've been. I hope that kind of rain and flooding doesn't happen again any time soon.
Wow, I had no idea. What does the New York Times? Good to know they were well organized to rescue everybody and preserve this lovely view.
Oh my...the flood must have been quite an unforgettable nightmare.
There is a Chinese saying that goes like this - Water can make the boat afloat as well as sink it.
As much as we like to think that we are master of our fate, we are actually vulnerable when Mother Nature gets angry.
Western countries like yours have good emergency measures when it comes to combating natural disaster. Can't say the same when it comes to Asia.
What a difference a year makes...I hope everyone is back to normal.....amazing how quickly water does come......
It really was a dreadful sighht. One year on and people are still in cravans. This should not be the case in a country such as the UK and it makes me so angry. I hope that is never happens again. Not only the material damage but the loos of life too was so tragic. well done for this post and the links. We shouldn't forget these scenes.
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