Storm Babet: a brief summary

on

This storm seems to have been a wake-up call for many, and continues to affect people in new locations across the north and the Midlands several days later as rivers rise at different times following the arrival of rainfall from different areas of catchments.


Image: Sally Parkinson - on the A47 

The unrelenting rainfall seems to have been a factor for many too, with record breaking rainfall amounts in several locations - particularly up in Angus, Scotland but also down in Norfolk and Suffolk (included the threatened coastline at Hemsby, where there are communities living in dune properties with little coastal protection) where an emergency incident was declared. 

At the time of posting this, there are sadly at least four deaths that have been reported as a result of the flooding - which is likely to rise - and thousands of people are still out of their homes, and will not be back in them for some months. Several of these were also uninsured as their properties had previously flooded.

I can imagine this becoming a named storm which may end up being added to some people's courses as a case study to direct students towards, because of the wide spread and extreme nature of the impacts, and the various communities affected.

The overnight rain had produced some rather large puddles on Friday morning, and splashed to and from work. Went the 'top way' back to the village and ended up following a fast flowing new river which had decided to take the quick and soil clogged route down the road for a few hundred yards before veering off into another field. Fortunate to not have encountered more problems than we did. Others were far worse off than me.

The A47 was closed for a day and a half due to flooding just outside Norwich, creating lengthy delays for football fans trying to get to the Norwich vs Leeds match. Even on Tuesday, flood water was still causing big queues as traffic negotiated a blockage which one hopes would have been cleared by now.

Dr. David Preece produced a summary of activity on his Twitter feed.

Local drone photographer John Fielding, who I follow on Flickr, shared a range of drone shots of flooded areas in Suffolk and Norfolk. 

Here's the impact on the Severn, with the peak reaching different areas at different times over the next few days...


 Image: Environment Agency

Update

The recent pronouncements by Therese Coffey on the storm are attracting the derision they deserve.

Comments

Post a Comment