[Kizzy]

Storm Desmond: army deployed to rescue stranded as flood defences fail – live blog
David Cameron calls emergency COBRA meeting
Over 100 severe flood warnings and 68 alerts
60,000 homes in northwest England left without power
200mm of rain fell in Britain’s wettest area in Cumbria
Follow the latest developments after man dies and army is drafted in to deal with chaos wreaked by strong winds and heavy rain, causing Cumbria to declare major incident.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said that every fire and rescue service responding to the floods across northern England has seen unprecedented funding cuts over the past five years.

Fire and rescue services in Cumbria, Northumberland, Lancashire, Tyne and Wear and North Yorkshire have all faced cuts and job losses, it was claimed.

The FBU said the ability of the fire and rescue service to respond to incidents over the weekend had been affected by the cuts and called on the prime minister to reverse them.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, praised firefighters for their “fantastic work” in tackling the impact of the storm and the floods. He said firefighters had saved thousands of people from the dangers of flooding and they were central to efforts to protect livestock, industry and other private property.

David Cameron has tweeted his sympathy for the thousands of people affected by the storm. Yet our fire and rescue service is being cut to pieces and the prime minister turns a blind eye to the results.

Firefighters are responding to this emergency as they have been every time such storms and floods have hit the UK.

David Cameron, on the eve of the 2010 general election, spoke at Carlisle fire station and promised to protect frontline public services. The reality has been the complete opposite.

The fire and rescue service is being cut to pieces. We urgently appeal to the prime minister to reverse the cuts to our emergency services.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environme...b0768f5818c962

[JoshBB]

This is the impact of austerity. I can assure you this also won't do much to 'get people back to work' or improve productivity either, and this has evidently caused much disruption.

[Smithy]

Apparently the army has been brought in back home to stop people from looting it's never been that bad before

[arista]

Months Rain in 24hours

Nothing can stop this.

[bots]

its only happening "up north" so its not important

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by JingleBitch

Apparently the army has been brought in back home to stop people from looting it's never been that bad before

Where on earth are they suggesting that?

[Crimson Dynamo]

it was a huge injection of tropical air on a sw conveyor belt

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by Merry Kizzmas

Where on earth are they suggesting that?

Lancaster

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Joseph the Carpenter

it was a huge injection of tropical air on a sw conveyor belt

[T*]

Originally Posted by Elf On Strike

its only happening "up north" so its not important

*gives you the finger whilst being swept away in the water*

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by JingleBitch

Lancaster

I think the army was drafted in to support the unsupported public services in truth

[DemolitionRed]

I was in Harrogate yesterday and decided to drive home early. I later heard that the bridge onto the A1 in wetherby had to be closed because the water had risen dangerously high.

[Kazanne]

NOTHING or NO-ONE could have stopped this.more rain has fallen than EVER in a short time,you could have had hundreds of firemen on the job and still been overwhelmed.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

I was in Harrogate yesterday and decided to drive home early. I later heard that the bridge onto the A1 in wetherby had to be closed because the water had risen dangerously high.

My daughter drove to Preston from Leeds today and it was fine, so happy she's not at Lancaster uni anymore :/
She says her mates still living there are posting some really sad pics of the damage there.

[smudgie]

Awful.
All those poor families facing Christmas with no home to go to.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Tinselbells

NOTHING or NO-ONE could have stopped this.more rain has fallen than EVER in a short time,you could have had hundreds of firemen on the job and still been overwhelmed.

Weeeeell... they could have avoided building homes on flood plains in the first place, but that's Captain Hindsight talking I suppose.

But yeah. The foolish man built his house upon the sand, and all that.

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

I was in Harrogate yesterday and decided to drive home early. I later heard that the bridge onto the A1 in wetherby had to be closed because the water had risen dangerously high.

OMG!!!! I've just posted on your wall. Message me plz!

[Ninastar]

I stayed in leeds last night and the girls house I was at is well old and the window kept blowing open. it was awful

[joeysteele]

More should have been spent on the defences as was done down South in Devon. Not enough was done in the lake District areas and the Borders.
There again, the areas that often get the most rain anyway got a sticking plaster while anywhere else got the full bandages.

People who last year in Cumbria who lost near everything,despite all the govts words last year and some finance to build defences, those same people are now losing everything again this year.

So in effect little learned again.
Devastating and heartbreaking to see people turfed out of their homes and losing furniture and possessions by weather in the UK in this day and age.

[Crimson Dynamo]

There are eports of Environment Agency rain gauge reporting 341mm in 24hrs at Honister near Keswick (Cumbria). 13 inches

Now on Sat I had 53mm of rain in 24 hours and it was pretty bad and many years ago we got 80mm and it was pretty chaotic. A very wet day will give you an inch. Probably the wettest day you can recall will be 2 or 3 inches.

13 inches

That is like the heaviest rain you can imagine in a thunderstorm going pretty much for a full day

Its quite mindboggling

[arista]

[Part of a road running through
Patterdale, Cumbria, collapsed into a nearby
river yesterday as it struggled
under the heavy rainfall]

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3td69zCMw


Yes the water has some power

[Kizzy]

Heartbreaking, stunning place what about the sheep?

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Merry Kizzmas

Heartbreaking, stunning place what about the sheep?

Sheep live on the hills, they'll be fine, hills don't flood.

My heart does go out to the people who have found themselves displaced and reeling from this but I was also being serious when I said that the major cause of this is sheer human arrogance. These flood plains have been under water countless times throughout history - that's why they're flood plains, that's why they're so nice and flat and seemingly "good" for building on... So when they're relatively dry for a few hundred years, along come people thinking they can thwart nature and build homes on flood land and it'll never flood again. And then they flood. As they have done thousands of times before. And people are for some reason surprised.

Building on them in the first place was simply a bad idea. That can be forgiven with old towns and villages where they probably didn't appreciate the potential for disaster a few hundred tears ago, but... We STILL build on flood plains constantly. Eventually, they will flood. In a decade or in a hundred years... But it's inevitable.

[Kizzy]

May other places in the world build on areas prone to flooding but they have adequate defences, one thing we appear to be crap at here.... Now if you could bomb rain and stop it falling that would've been done months ago

[smudgie]

Well you can build your flood defences against rivers rising as has been done in many places. The new flood defences did not burst but we're not high enough in places.
Just how high can you build them?
The main flooding appears to be with the drains not being able to cope with all that deluge of water. Hopefully if and when new 'estates' are built they will put in adequate drainage.
Unfortunately Cumbria will always be prone to flooding, with the amount of water that runs off all the hills you won't beat Mother Nature, such a beautiful place to live that many are prepared to take the risk.