"Up to thee our kid" I picked that out of our Tod chat. Apart from scary little videos of the river rushing down, the words were from someone whose barge had come free and gone downstream. He had asked for help and a strong rope and people had responded. Another barge yesterday evening had caused several vehicles with flashing lights and sirens wailing, must have been ambulances summoned to rescue. It seemed that the family had been overcome by monoxide poisoning on the boat and an air ambulance came in as well.
First time I had heard the flood warning as well yesterday, the old wartime siren is scary. But there is a general togetherness in the town, people offer help and no we don't seem to be flooded, though I haven't looked down in the cellar. One striking video taken from a railway bridge shows the waters tumbling and raging and then further along a 100 yards on, the train slowly appears crossing on a raised ramp. It goes very slowly its carriages one by one in a stately procession and then it seems too reverse back. Trains have been out of service for many days and I think this third storm has not helped.
The wind has howled and buffeted the windows, finding out all those little cracks in an old house. My bedroom door mysteriously flies open in the night, I know it is only another strong gust but thoughts of ghosts slip by....
Naming storms: Interestingly someone was arguing on the radio that because the Met office is so on top of the weather systems, storms can become recognised individually. Climate change is bringing on its heels much rougher weather and battening down in the future must be accepted.
Historic England have just listed a WW2 air raid siren sitting on top of a tall metal pole. I remember we had one outside my old school. They still have working ones in Germany which are tested every once in a while. Even though I wasn't born until after the war, I woke up terrified one morning when they tested one in the street I was staying. The street was in the eye of the firestorm of Hamburg and I was in the only intact surviving building, which was still black from the fire. That was spooky.
ReplyDeleteGosh an interesting story Tom. I recognised the siren from old films, and here, it is tested regularly as well. I notice you did not wake up till late into the fire, that is the scary bit. I slept through the fire engine (parked outside the house) as it hosed down a house just two doors from us recently.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds very silly, I suppose, but I love being all tucked up cozy in bed during a wild storm. It reminds me of being a child in a house in the woods, where you could hear the wind roaring through the tree tops. It sounded like the ocean to me. Hearing it tripping on the eaves and howling as it buffeted the house was always a soothing sound, as strange as it sounds. All these years later, it still is (to my old ears!)
ReplyDeleteThere you are Debby, storms are just the sounds of oceans lilting through the trees. Adults would have worried about tiles coming off the roof and letting the rain in ;) But of course a warm bed is a comfort against a fierce storm.
DeleteI heard someone say that they name the storms to make it easier to tell people which days they will arrive as they can predict further ahead - logical I guess.
ReplyDeleteYes Sue, it somehow grounds everything in a logical format which is sad. No matter what name you give it, it will still come in as a storm.
DeleteI heard your siren on the news Thelma. Took me back to the one they sounded regularly (testing) down at the Community Centre in the road where I grew up. The testing in the 60s and 70s was more a "4 minute warning" in case of Nuclear Attack (obviously during the Cold War).
ReplyDeleteGlad you survived and hope you aren't flooded in the basement. The storm here came from the N-W and rattled our bedroom windows and blew the shutters open into the room.
Lots of flooding in Builth, under cover of darkness, and many roads (main ones too) shut today due to flooding and/or fallen trees. I was following the levels of the Wye online, and it came very close to the highest ever recorded levelin 2020, 5.05 m above normal. It was 4.922 at the highest yesterday. Still pools of water on the Groe and the bottom Co-op is shut due to flooding.
Didn't realise Todmorden had made it to the news Jennie. I remember the 4 minute warning, which never happened thank goodness. But funnily enough as we were all playing UNO in the kitchen both my daughter and Lillie's phones went off for the flood warning. The storm was of course moving South and anything in the West was getting a more powerful surge.
ReplyDeletevery scary here when there is strong wind and rain. The river Ure can rise twenty feet in an hour when there is a combination of wind and rain - goes down just as fast but no fun if you live on its banks.
ReplyDeleteThe rivers of Yorkshire rise very fast when the water comes down from the moors. Manchester was flooded in places but we seem to have missed out Pat. Though when I walked down to Lidl this morning, I noticed several places had steel barriers in place. Though they looked flimsy compared to the strong metal barriers that protect the houses in York.
ReplyDeleteI like going to sleep in a raging storm, and periodically waking to lightening flashes .
ReplyDeleteYes being comfortable in bed whilst the storm rages outside is good Joanne.
DeleteI always think of Todmorden as a high place - on the roof on the country. Therefore it is strange to picture it being threatened by floods.
ReplyDeleteNo, the town and Hebden Bridge live in a small steep sided wooded valley. On the flat, there is the canal, river, road and rail. Not sure whether you have read Gallows Pole yet. But amongst all the dark cruelty he does describe the landscape well.
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