Floody floods

[buttgammon]

Well, I'm here in Wales drinking water out of the tap while running a bath and doing the washing up and flushing the toilet repeatedly. And then I'll have a hot shower and make several pots of tea. And I think I'll water the flowers with my gigantic hosepipe after that.

[ziggy starbucks]

but on the negative side, you live in wales

[mothman]

My company's Gloucester office is in the grounds of the Cathedral, and it's closed today (the office, not sure about the cathedral). Closed mainly because no-one can get into town, so we're unsure what state the office is in. Flooded basement, they hypothesize, but no-one actually knows for sure. Can't contact their server and the phones are out, but more widespread infrastructure failures could account for that. So I could be faced with one hell of a Disaster Recovery scenario.

[surreal]

My company's Gloucester office is in the grounds of the Cathedral, and it's closed today (the office, not sure about the cathedral). Closed mainly because no-one can get into town, so we're unsure what state the office is in. Flooded basement, they hypothesize, but no-one actually knows for sure. Can't contact their server and the phones are out, but more widespread infrastructure failures could account for that. So I could be faced with one hell of a Disaster Recovery scenario.

But on the plus side - overtime pay!!!

[duckorange]

But on the plus side - overtime pay!!!

On the down side: Weil's Disease!

[mothman]

I've already got Brecht's Syndrome, might as well get the full set. Apparently no flooding at the cathedral (the Church always got the best land, usually by killing anyone who objected) so my attempts to get into my wetsuit were a waste of time. Will still make sure I have my wellies in the car when I go up, though.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

BBC News story about criticism of people taking pictures at flooded areas to take pictures as they're endangering themselves and others:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/6911638.stm

Do you have any pictures of flooding in your area? If so, you can send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6909198.stm

Admittedly, not quite the same as the flood rubberneckers criticised in the first story, but not far off!

[Pinball]

I wonder if people will now accept that climate change is happening? A shame it's probably too late to do much about it, thanks to the BRIC countries. So, we'd better get fucking used to it, then.

Run to the hills!

[Kazuo Kiriyama]

It's just viral marketing for Evan Almighty.

[Pinball]

Well it certainly isn't going to help house prices, certainly in the multimillion bracket that rich types by the river have (had). Or maybe being able to jetski from the patio windows to the shed is a plus?

[The Plaque Goblin]

If we keep polluting, shouldn't that push the Gulf Stream even further south?

It's funny really, we had to go via Tewksebury to get home when it snowed in February.

Now I'm sitting here in the Forest of Dean a couple of miles from the Severn estuary with all water and electricity intact  and looking forward to not going into work again!

[Pinball]

Here's The Plaque Goblin travelling to work tomorrow:


;-)

[23 Daves]

No water coming out of the taps here in Walthamstow, even though we've had no flooding in this area whatsoever... anyone else having the same problem?

[Marvin]

I had to sort out rooms and food at our place for Rajesh Mirchandani today who was reporting on the floods in Tewkesbury, which incidentally are FUCKING MENTAL. Rajesh however is terribly nice.

[23 Daves]

Nope, ignore my last post - as I'm sure you probably all did anyway - it turns out that a neighbour in this block of flats was doing work on his bathroom, mistakenly turned our water supply off instead of his, then failed to correct the problem once he'd worked out what he'd done.

Floods may come and floods may go, but inconsiderate, twatty London neighbours will remain.  Some consolation for people in other flooded areas who think we're getting away with it, perhaps, but not much.

[Abbie]

I'm getting really annoyed with the few selfish fuckers that bring cauldrons and other HUGE bath-like containers to the rather small bowser on our road. Please people, the water is for everyone, not just you. Also on my hit list are the shop owners charging exorbitant prices for water, bread and milk.

The authorities, emergency services and utility companies (especially Severn Trent) here in Gloucestershire have been fantastic. The water ran out on my street early Monday morning and the bowser was outside by the afternoon. I think the power is back on in Gloucester now too which is quite an achievement given the state the place is in. And save for the few gits mentioned above, neighbours have been great at looking out for each other round here - i'm annoying the crap out of my elderly friend, ringing her every 5 minutes to check she's OK :-)

*sob* I love you guys *sob*

Disaster recovery meeting of the suits at my place tomorrow to discuss a way to get us all back to work. Boooo!

[niat]

What a great word "bowser" is. Just let it roll around your tongue, bowser, bowser. Lovely.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Nice to see they still have cauldrons anyway. It must be extremely difficult to be a witch these days as they just don't sell them anymore.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

The government is sending out water bowsers (hey it is a good word) to people without water? It's the nanny state gone mad! People should be buying their water like the good free market capitalists that you are.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Shouldn't there be at least some looting going on?

[SetToStun]

Perhaps we only have fair-weather looters these days.

[bomb_dog]

People filling cauldrons at the end of our road as well. Luckily we're not flooded ourselves - most of Gloucester and the hospital would have to be under 20ft of water for us to flood. Seen people driving up to the bowser for our estate, fill up, and piss off, so no idea where they came from.

Did see some people on Barnwood road last night opportunistically filling up out of a badly positioned bowser, meaning they're effectively 'drive-by' water thieves - take it from your own bowsers, you swines!

Meanwhile, we've barely washed yet as there are probably people in far greater need of a few baths of water than us. Apparently, long hair doesn't wash itself and showers are absolutely essential, you know.

Give this three weeks-month, and all the people who are being friendly and looking out for people will go back to the zombie lifestyle again, the people who are saying 'I'll never take tap water for granted again' will have short memories while they fill up their enormous paddling pools in their back gardens, generally positioned next to the high-fenced trampoline and 4x4.

And these fucks who are driving through their 4x4s through 'closed road' floods, washing the water into people's houses, are cunts. There, I've said it.

Heres the bowser map, if you've missed it.

[mothman]

Damnation. Power's back on, server's back up, and someone even made it into the office; no water though so it'll stay closed the rest of the week. I was looking forward to having to heroically struggle through raging torrents just to change the backup tape.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Why on earth are the bowsers denoted by angry turtles?

[bomb_dog]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Bowser

Sorry.... geek 'joke'.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Why on earth are the bowsers denoted by angry turtles?

Come on Grandad, get with programme. It's the 90s!

[Toad in the Hole]

Can I just say how fucked off I am that when, about a month ago, large parts of Chesterfield, Sheffield and surrounding areas were under water, it barely warranted a mention on the national news.  Of course, now that somewhere south of Birmingham has flooded, it's suddenly a national issue with BBC Flood Special programmes on, wall-to-wall coverage on TV, and everyone saying how terrible it is that it should happen in such a nice place.  Twats.

[bomb_dog]

Can I just say how fucked off I am that when, about a month ago, large parts of Chesterfield, Sheffield and surrounding areas were under water, it barely warranted a mention on the national news.  Of course, now that somewhere south of Birmingham has flooded, it's suddenly a national issue with BBC Flood Special programmes on, wall-to-wall coverage on TV, and everyone saying how terrible it is that it should happen in such a nice place.  Twats.

Fair enough, and I live in Gloucester. The only way policy changes will happen when London is under 2ft of water, but don't expect that'll happen. We're only getting major attention due to the lack of water, and the amount of commuters and weekenders who live in Cheltenham. Plus its less distance to travel to cover a story. And nothing much else seems to be happening.

[The Gush]

I'm surprised the news media didn't dub Friday's deluge "20/7" or something equally crass.  We (Cheltenham) lost our water supply last night.  Worst case scenario is that it'll take two weeks for the water to subside at the water treatment plant before engineers can even begin work.  Heavy rain is expected on Thursday.  The Tesco store down the road from me was filled with shoppers at 8:30 this morning bulk-buying bottled water.  There was a sense of restrained panic amongst everyone.  This is how I imagined a build-up to nuclear war would be like.  Anyway, time for a sing-song.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5wez5re1aU[/youtube]

[bomb_dog]

FUCKING HELL

From our window, I have just witnessed a procession of people trying to get water from our supposedly-filled-5-times-a-day-but-empty-since-10am bowser with buckets, pots, and the last few people had enormo-bottles which they would have difficulty carrying if they could actually fill them up.

We ran out on Sunday, and must have used less than three litres so far, plus some stream water to flush the bog. If they don't fill these bowsers regularly, people will be taking not just more than they really, truthfully need to get by, but MUCH MUCH more than they really need, 'just in case'. There are people just driving around trying to get water out of every bowser they come across. Bung some coppers on these bowsers, they may need some by the weekend at this rate. People must be bathing in the stuff.

BTW, our water bill is about £6 a month, on a meter. And surprisingly, we don't stink. (Apart from my posts)