Hello all,
A frightening wake up call for myself and Mrs Tank. Running water at 1.30am. At first it sounded like the water tank in the loft was filling up, but much louder.... I looked on our CCTV and there was a river flowing into our front garden. :o I shot downstairs to open the door to the porch (inner door) and water came pouring in, with water jetting through the gaps of the front door!
I ran out of the back door, down our alley (between the house and garage), and had to force the gate open. The other side of it was 70cm of water, floating wheelie bins and the garden bench. Water then flowed down the alley, relieving the front garden, but flooding the back garden.
Long story short, after a three hour battle (which I lost!), we had water in the porch, hallway, garage, workshop and 2 sheds. Losing 2 freezers full of food, lawnmower, and £5000 worth of power tools. Everything in those areas up to 80cm is covered in water, mud, and petrol....which must have come out of my late fathers WW2 motorbike. :(
The insurance assessor will be coming round tomorrow to survey the damage. No N gauge was harmed, though, my dads OO gauge collection was underwater, along with many model cars and buses.
I hope nobody else is suffering same issue. Heartbreaking! Now I need to see if I can get a grant for flood barriers.
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/145/2-260924113241.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=145463)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/145/2-260924113333.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=145464)
OMG Tank, that's awful for you and your family. At least it looks like the water level has receded.
Tim
Sorry to hear about your rising water problems, unfortunately it can be a long drawn out affair to get back to normal, the worse being when it hits the living quarters.
Hope you get sorted quickly with the insurance.
So sorry to hear this, Boss, and hope you can get sorted as soon as possible :(
Oh that is terrible news Chris.
I hope it can get sorted quickly and without too much bother.
Hi Chris
Please let us know if anything we can help with
Keep positive
What a horrid thing to happen.
With all good wishes.
John
That's pretty :poop: news Chris. I hope it gets sorted as soon as possible and you can replace all the De Walt stuff.
Sorry to hear about your predicament Chris thats one benefit of living on a hill .I doubt if we will ever experience any thing like that ,
The whole of High Wycombe including the Church would have to be totally under water before it reached us ,
You have my deapest sympathy especialy loosing your Fathers OO stock The DeWalt tools can be replaced by the insurance company but personal things like that can never be replaced .
Bob
Bloody hell, Chris, that's just awful. Like Bob, we are fortunate to live on top of a hill, so flooding like yours should never affect us. Burst pipes can be annoying but nothing compared to what you have got. Blanche and I send very best wishes to you and hope you get quickly back to normal.
All the best,
Chris
Awful news Chris, i was living next to the Yare in Norfolk till January and my phone still has the floodline warnings coming through. We never quite had a complete disaster but the outside areas got flooded several times leaving a sludge which is abhorrent.
I really do understand what you face and can only wish you all the help possible from those closer. Keep the updates coming if you feel it helps, Chris
Sorry to hear your terrible news Chris, hope all is sorted quickly
stay safe regards Derek.
Sorry to hear about this, boss. We live next to a creek and have had our fair share of scares over the years, but nothing like that.
Hope you get it all sorted relatively quickly and hassle free.
That's terrible - hope you get sorted quickly.
( do you live in an area known historically for flooding and there has been much more water than usual? or have they made changes to the protection /constructed new roads etc. (removing natural sumps &c. ) recently?)
Best, Colin.
Sorry to hear that Chris, awful for you all. hope you manage to get everything sorted.
What an awful experience. I hope they rspond insurance company responds well.
On a brighter note, your dad's OO stock should recover after a wash. One of our club members gets old abused OO locos going by leaving them to soak overnight in a bowl of soapy water!
Your dad's motorbike should be fine also, just drain and flush all the fluids. I'd also refill the oil tank(s) and then leave for a week or two. Check for any water contamination before starting. For the petrol tank, I'd turn it upside down with the filler cap off for a couple of days to let any moisture drain. Refit and then fill totally with fuel to prevent rusting.
Remembering only too well the 2007 flooding in Hull, you have my absolute sympathy. :(
We were extremely lucky - the water showed how much the levels vary in one street. We had water around 2 inch deep in the conservatory which is about 10 inch below the level of the main house, and 8in deep in the shed & garage. Directly opposite on the other side of the street, they had 6in+ of water throughout and at the lowest point halfway down the street it was up to 18 inch deep.
At the other side of town, the new posh hosing estate built on what had always been flood plains was completely devastated...
We lost a couple of items of furniture in conservatory and the shed needed a new floor, but it was extremely fortunate that everything stored in there was in plastic "Really Useful Boxes".
At the time I was supporting the NHS emergency control team so was in the office all day not knowing what was going on at home. A colleagues partner was among the fire service team who tried to rescue an individual who had got stuck in a storm drain and sadly lost their life.
Sorry to hear this
@Tank , as I am driving around Beford at the moment the amount of water around is a real worry.
Hope all gets sorted by the insurance for you.
all the best
Graham
Quote from: PLD on September 27, 2024, 08:50:30 AMAt the other side of town, the new posh hosing estate built on what had always been flood plains was completely devastated...
Misnamed but probably correct under the circumstances
So sorry to hear of the problems Chris. Like some other members of the forum, we fortunately live near the top of a hill. After a period of heavy rain, we see lots of the low lying fields under water - there are a lot of streams and rivers round here, which all feed into the many lakes. I remember once that the 'main' road I use to take Louisa to work was flooded and closed for two weeks, necessitating a 10 mile detour, but, as I said, we are fortunate living where we do. I hope all is sorted out for you soon.
So sad to hear about your terrible flooding Chris. Hope that everything gets sorted as soon as possible.
What an awful and upsetting experience for you all, I do hope the insurance company sort things quickly. I am fortunate living on high land, but going to the Kempston show on Saturday, I could see much evidence of flooding around the east side of Buckingham, and the west side of Bedford.
Hope everything gets sorted quickly Chris. I'm lucky enough to have avoided being flooded out, but have ended up marooned for 2 weeks during the big floods around Newcastle in 2007. The house we were renting was built up above the ground enough to just (only just) keep the floor level above the water level, but we had to rush around and fill all the air brick holes with plasticine before the predicted flooding. Our roads were all cut off for a week or so and the stench of the rotting fields around us after the water eventually receded was pretty bad.
Thanks for the messages everyone. It seems that some of you have had experience of it yourselves!
The insurance assessors had a look last Friday, and really weren't interested in recording much. It seemed to be a visit to make sure it was genuine. They took some photos of my two sheds, and the handful of items in those, but said that the garage was 2-3 days work! We called the insurance company and I've said that I'd do it myself.
So, I completed the list last night, and there is a LOT! So, the next task will be a spreadsheet and renaming the hundreds of photos to match up to that.
Quote from: cmason on September 27, 2024, 05:27:12 AMThat's terrible - hope you get sorted quickly.
( do you live in an area known historically for flooding and there has been much more water than usual? or have they made changes to the protection /constructed new roads etc. (removing natural sumps &c. ) recently?)
Best, Colin.
The road is known for localised flooding from surface water. The roads around us are quite big hills. Sadly, some flood alleviating works that Croydon Council did last year have not worked, and have made it worse.
The contractor for the substation inspected their partition wall, that collapsed, and they will be looking at installing flood protection for the substation, which will hugely help out property. I can't wait to see what they have planned, and I hope it's just as the contractor described to me yesterday. This of course won't stop the road from flooding, but should stop most of the water entering our property.
You will have to build a huge wall round your property Boss and a lift to get over it, steps would be no good for me I have enough trouble going upstairs to bed every night .
Bob
Quote from: Tank on October 03, 2024, 10:16:10 AMThe road is known for localised flooding from surface water.
Big problem in a couple of places I have lived here in Japan, where flat land in towns and cities is at a premium such that it gets built over with housing or even just converted from rice paddies into tarmacked car parks but with sometimes insufficient consideration given to additional drainage to replace the natural soakaways of the former fields, especially in teh suburbs. The results when there is a heavy downpour or a typhoon I guess you can imagine....
Colin.