A river runs through it...

[jadesfire]

...or rather, over it. The picture under the cut at the bottom is the view from our flat at 9pm today. It hasn't rained at all, but the water's been steadily rising and rising towards our garage. Fortunately we live on the first floor, above the garage, so we're fine, but there's lots of damageable stuff in the garage and I worry about these things.



2.30 pm
Me: It's getting higher
Him: Is it?
Me: Yes!
Him: It'll be fine.

3.30 pm
Me: It's getting higher still
Him: Is it?
Me: Yes!
Him: Hmmmm...it is isn't it. We'd better keep an eye on it.

4.30 pm
Me: It's still getting higher *worries*
Him [reasonable]: Well, it's rising really slowly. Nothing's going to happen until this evening. It's only coming up at about 1 foot an hour and it's at least 30 foot from the house. We're only going to be out a few hours.

8.30 pm (back from church
Me: EEEEK!!! Water!!!
Him: Hmmmm...it is a little high, isn't it?
Me: *fretting* What about the garage?
Him: It probably won't flood but we'd better go do something about it anyway.

I hate it when he comes over all reasonable on me.


So we got everything off the ground in the garage, and will just have to wait and see what happens. I'm still worrying, but Oxford's missed the worst of the flooding while all the surrounding towns are waist-deep in water, so I've got little to complain about.

If you see a request for snorkels go up here, you'll know it all went horribly wrong...




To put this in perspective - you see the pale tree in the middle of the river? The lawn goes about another four feet beyond that, and there should be a field on the other side...

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Good heavens! Is England sinking under the weight of all that rain? That's really quite impressive.

Everything is so green and beautiful, though. It must be a lovely view when it isn't under water.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It feels like it should be sinking. This is just water coming down from the Cotswold hills - Gloucestershire's more or less submerged and Worcestershire's not much better. It's getting serious as some water treatment plants have been flooded and so the clean water's running out.

But yes, it is a lovely view :D And we get ducks and swans on the river and little birds in the trees and bushes. It was a major factor in choosing the flat and, because the field is a nature reserve and a flood plain (there's another river beyond it) it's not going to be built on unlike most of the rest of Oxford!

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*blink* Oxford doesn't build on flood plains? You have sensible planners, then. They do down here, and I'm starting to worry for some local areas. We're due to be drowned on Wednesday.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! This flood plain would be mad to build on, plus it's a nature reserve. Oxford's downstream from the Cotswolds and has 2 rivers and a canal - I think people have learnt their lessons! The field opposite floods every single winter - which is probably how it got the nature reserve status. It's too soggy for anything else!

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

Erk. I saw on the news that Oxfordshire was going underwater, and I was worrying about you. Is your water supply still okay?

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* Oxford itself is absolutely fine, but we're only about 2 miles from Kidlington which really isn't. But it's Gloucestershire that took the brunt of it - we're mostly getting run off from the Cotswolds and that's what's causing the flooding here. But so far, all utilities are fine, and if it looks like it's going to come higher tomorrow, we can go and get some sandbags from the flood defence people to protect the garage.

It's all rather surreal, given how long the water took to rise - for a while, I thought we weren't going to see any effects at all...

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*nods* I saw the pictures on the news. I hope that they manage to get the water suppliers in Gloucestershire sorted out.

That goodness there are sandbags available - I saw that they'd run out in places.

[amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! Thats wet!

What's the betting they still try to pull a hosepipe ban if it warms up August/September time.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd say it's fairly certain - this is probably the wrong kind of rain... ;)

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

I am very glad I'm in Liverpool and halfway up a hill. It's wet, but not flooded at all and we even had 3 hours of sunshine today. Funnily enough, I was supposed to go to Joust this weekend but it was cancelled. I'm actually happy about that cos the site is probably under about 6 foot of water now (it's in Gloucestershire).

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the sunshine in the morning - the rising river took the edge of the afternoon somewhat...

They're having to cancel things left right and centre at the moment but the garage is still dry this morning, so hopefully we're going to be okay...

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

This is one of those times I'm really glad I live on the 1000ft contour. If my house floods, I'll just hang out the windows until Noah can rescue me.

Hope there haven't been any more serious consequences for you.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* The people in the flat above own a couple of canoes. I wonder if they know something we don't...

No consequences so far, but the rivers are still rising. I'll keep you posted :)

[aoife-8.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was wondering how you were getting on. Fingers crossed the water doesn't get higher. I'll see for myself tomorrow (if I make it into work - I think the A40 at Eynsham is closed, so I'll be using the A44). Up here in the Cotswolds it's *very* wet but as I live on a hill the water just runs off in sheets, and the town will not flood. I lived in Warwick when it flooded really badly about 10 years ago so I've learned my lesson about where to buy houses!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think Eynsham is pretty much closed! The river will be completely over the road, I would have thought.

I'm very grateful that we live on the first floor and that it's only the garage we have to worry about, which is such a minor thing compared to most of the county.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

OK, I will concede that I'd be worrying too if I was in your position... The rain's moved mack up here now though, so you should be okay hopefully... or is it still going?

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Back, damnit, back *rolls eyes*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

[love the new icon :D]

It's a pain that you can't edit comments, isn't it?

It looks okay for now - the water seems to be staying in the garden, but we're getting warnings about river levels continuing to rise so I'm starting to wonder about sandbags.

(incidentally, I think someone's trying to tell me something - have a look at rustydog's comment on "Personal Space"...]

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

Wow. Hope y'all stay high and dry! Let us know if we should send you out the rescue helicopters...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

We're fine, thanks :) I can still see some grass in the garden this morning, although I'll be keeping an eye on it as the levels look set to rise again. But compared to most of the county (and neighbouring counties) this barely counts as a puddle.

Although the sky is very cloudy...we could get more rain... :S

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for your garage now, with water all lapping at it menacingly. Everything's floating away! It's amazing the way so many people are all 'oh it's only a little bit of water', there's going to be places that are landlocked soon!

*lives on a hill...not sure whether to buy a dingy though*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* I'm going out to buy some wellies, the absence of which suddenly looks like a major oversight...

We're fine so far - I can still see some grass - but there's no way we'll get sandbags. Other people need them way more than us, so we'll just have to hope that it does rise any higher. With the rain coming down, that's not looking hopeful...

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

It seems I left England just in time. I've been worrying about everyone. I hope everything there continues to be alright.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think you timed it just right... The usual is happening - everyone's blaming the Government and Global Warming (possibly with good reason on both accounts); the canoeists are both having fun and working hard as the only people who can get about properly; everyone's doing a good job of not panicking and is putting everything up on bricks (or some folding crates and an overturned plastic bin in our case :D); and they're starting to talk about the Blitz spirit, which I always think is a good sign. Everyone's upset and many are devastated, but I think they're getting used to it - this is the 3rd or 4th year that we've had bad flooding.

It's fine here - the water seems to have reached a settled point. The ground we're on is a fraction higher than the nature reserve opposite and so it seems to be flowing that way, but if we get another big surge, the garden's going under. With all the trees and shrubs poking out from the water, it looks more like the Everglades than Oxford!

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I hope you're not flooded out, that's a nasty mess to have to clean up. *crosses fingers*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

We keep a bed stored the garage, so I'm really, really hoping no water gets in, if only because our flat is really little and I'm not sure where we'd store it up here...

So far, so good, but tomorrow morning's supposed to be the peak time for the floods. Here's hoping!

[idontlikegravy.livejournal.com]

Bloody Hell! Suddenly v. glad I live on the coast, flooding doesn't tend to happen so much, tho Wimbourne is just up the road and it always gets buggered cos it's basically an island between three rivers. Touch wood we seem to have missed the worst of it though.

Mind you it is still raining....

Hope you aren't soggy. :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D We're fine and despite a bit of rain yesterday, it seems to be going down again. I find out soon whether or not we got flooded at work...

[unfeathered]

It's bizarre reading about things like this and seeing pictures like that.

We have no flooding at all here (Essex). It's been a bit rainy but nothing very bad and lots of sunny intervals. Feels like we're in a different country.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It's weird even in Oxford. The river's really gone down since Sunday, but it's rising over Osney island and two of the main roads into the city are closed. And yet my walk to work today was completely dry. Very odd.