Victor: And the rains came...

THE rains came indeed with one storm piling on another flooding the rivers.

The result of the latest storm 'Dennis' is that all the navigational rivers are well and truly flooded and impassible as many of you are discovering. The Severn is at present well over its banks as the picture of the river late yesterday, clearly shows.  Where the actual river is, is hard to tell!

Test of moorings

The flood is causing a real test of moorings, with reports of those tied tight to the ground being flooded and two not tied too well at Upton being swept away down river.

The Avon regularly floods as boaters seeing the flood level marking along the river can testify, and this time is no exception, with the river in flood along its whole length, and of course completely unavigable.

The Soar

The Soar must be the most flooding river of them all, as one decent day of rain has it unavigable, as we have all too often found, so after this lot it is well over its banks, and here's a picture of Cossington Lock—but don't forget to close the gates behind you and lower the paddles.

As the Soar pours into the already flooded Trent floods are being reports at both Nottingham and Newark before it even gets to its tidal length and into the fields of Lincolnshire.

Rather worrying

The flooding Trent is a rather worrying feature for the residents of Sawley Marina as under the new health and safety rules the residents must vacate if the water gets over the jetties, which it has done no few times to our knowledge, though the raising of the bank by the HGV auctioneers over the road has somewhat rectified this, but should it go over the flood lock, then that will be it.

A couple of times this has occurred over the past years, as the picture shows, so all are hoping that the extra work on the lock will prevent this.  We will find out tomorrow afternoon, the possibility of a 'Road Closed' sign approaching the marina will tell all...

The Ouse

The Ouse along its entire length is well in flood with streets under water in York.

Again there are reports of drifting boats in the flood waters that have not been tied securely, with a further report of boats on banks where they will be marooned when the water recedes.

These instances show that it is always wise to get off such rivers if at all possible, when storms are forecast, especially at this time of year when the ground is so saturated it cannot 'take' further water.

The Thames

The Thames is once again in flood, again along its whole navigable length, with the expected red warning boards well in evidence warning of the obvious!

Though the river is well equipped with flood prevention mechanisms, such is the amount of flood water that they are of little use, and with the great reduction in staff are not always manned.

The picture is of boat free Marlow on the river.

Others

There are reports of the Fenland rivers and dykes in flood with boat traffic at a complete standstill at present.

Victor Swift