Thames Barrier

Does closing the Thames barrier, cause flooding further upstream, on the non-tidal reaches?

My reasoning is that if the river cannot get down to the sea, the flood water has to go somewhere. Which logically, points me to the conclusion that "yes, it does". However, Peter (the marina manager) finds that notion highly laughable. And of the people who wrote into the Oxfordshire newspapers to complain about it recently, he said "They are as deluded as you are".

Who's right?
(google was inconclusive)

"Oh, wouldn't it be nice..."

It's not going down

Channel 4 news crew

Flooded office

Something missing..

All gone bridge

After leaving it all loafing around the marina for a month, the bridge contractors decided that today was the day they were going to come and get their stuff back. Cheers guys! **

More spans were donated (thankyou Anthony and Patricia), and we managed to build a new bridge. Possibly better than the first bridge. But it entailed sloshing about in the cold water, with the river threatening to swamp the tops of our waders.

The water levels are much higher than last year. It's completely overwhelmed the local sewage system, which is now discharging directly into the river. It's started to trickle into the marina office, and it seems set to rise even higher tonight. Fast flowing too, with large tree trunks and telegraph poles in it.

A guilty looking Sumo

Scuffed up the bed, because he couldn't get off the boat.




** Post edited, because I hate moaning. Many people have problems far worse than my own at present. And I should just revel in the uniqueness of the situation and count myself lucky.

Swans and Detritus

It would be a nice day... if everything wasn't under 3 feet of water. Cookham village has been closed off because of the flooding. It heaved it down with rain last night, comically. What wasn't so funny, was having to realign the satellite dish while it was doing so.

More due tonight. Oh well, not such a problem now that we have a nice bridge that Sumo can walk across. Got coal, logs, milk & fags. Sitting pretty, really.

New Bridge

Approved by Sumo

Scavenged some planks and ladders left behind by the bridge maintainence crew. Received big wags from the beast, when he discovered that he can now get ashore without getting his belly wet. Thanks for your kind help, Matt and Richie.

Cheers...

Proper Grim

Marooned on boat. This morning, Sumo had to jump off of the back deck and then swim for shore. Since then, the river has continued it's rapid inexorable rise, and is now too deep and swift for me to wade about in safely. The planks and ladders we used last year, to make a bridge, have either been used elsewhere or washed away in the current.

On the plus side, I did manage to chop up and store some logs before this second lot of floods started, so at least we aren't cold. Don't know how long shorepower will last though, as all the cables are now underwater. Ran the engine for a short test period this morning, just in case it's needed.

ack...

Yes, the river knows..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lphIQv_J-r0