The flood area in Fishlake its awful but...

[macabethiel]

Drawing on my experience when we had our House Fire caused by a Firework on the 4th November 2017 I am a bit bewildered by the Media & the residents of Fishlake blaming the government for the lack of response to the flooding.

It is a fact that dredging is not to blame as this just marginally delays the inevitable. You can't pump out water until the levels drop - there is nowhere for it to go!

Looking at the properties under water I guess most of the residents have house insurance. Aside from the first day why have they not gone into Emergency accommodation at a Hotel outside the flood zone?

The Insurance will pay for Emergency accomodation as well as temporary rented housing. Yes you might be out of pocket for the first three weeks especially if you do not appoint your own Loss Assessor - they offer their services for free as they are paid by the winning contractor on a commission process.

Our loss assessor was Morgan Clarke they are governed by the FSA, they got me electricity restored for my Pond within 12 hours - I lost only one Tropical Fish. They also appointed Rainbow International Ltd to clear the house - it took over three weeks to itemise everything that went into storage so there was no issue as to what was or was not damaged.

A high proportion of the damage was caused by either smoke fumes that ruins all printed circuits over time & water damage as a result of the fire hoses. I was advised by the Fire & Rescue Services on the night who provided me with the phone number of a Birmingham based Charity called E.D,M. who were really helpful.

I guess people managing their own situation isn't news so they concentrate on the less well informed or those without insurance cover. The media should be advising them to appoint an Independent Loss Assessor & take control not looking for cheap blame news.

Within 36 hours I had found somewhere else to live by using the Hotel's Free Wi-Fi as we spent only 8 days in a local hotel - with the added problem of 4 Chihuahuas.

Yes its difficult if you are older but hey I was 69 at the time. We seem to be in a blame culture instead of some old fashioned self help or help from family. Snowflake is probably too strong a term but its nowt compared to the London Blitz in WW2.

 

[solarman216]

Seconded, well said, Rick

 

[Banshee]

Snow on the way too :nenau

Wiltshire got a dusting last night :clap

 

[makeitfit]

Not so black and white from my point of view.
We were flooded a few times and can no longer get insurance. The buildings cover has gone through the roof and we've been slapped with a 500 quid excess and still cant actually claim for water damage
We don't live on a flood plain, infact we're half way up a bloody great hill off the beach.
As regards flood plain building and dredging etc that's another debate BUT general deforestation in higher catchment areas doesn't help, neither does water extraction. The later reduces water levels generally but also slows river flow and subsequently increases the rate of sediment deposit.
Council built investments (defenses) are required to show a 6 fold return, so no surprise that defenses were done at built up city areas.
I guess what I'm leading to is an overall degradation in society and it's fabric due to years of austerity and miss-management, added to a belief it's always someone elses fault.
I heard that the council were accused of not delivering sandbags till friday afternoon. They no longer "stock" sand bags due to cuts, and so need to be ordered in advance ffs.
Think hard 0n 12/12/19 eh ?

 

[jims-terrano]

Well said Pete it’s a culmination of several factors not all down to global warming. Authorities suffering cuts year on year but people expect the same services which clearly isn’t feasible. Still when Brexit has been done and the country is the land of milk and honey then there will be so much money to spend on the flood defences and lining the hierarchical pockets first and for most of course. Still I’m getting even more political aren’t I.
I just feel sorry for the poor people losing the homes and possessions just before Christmas. Hopefully no more lives will be lost and these displaced people will be able to rebuild their lives safely.

 

[macabethiel]

Sorry Makefit - no contents cover must be a bummer.

Not so black and white from my point of view.
We were flooded a few times and can no longer get insurance. The buildings cover has gone through the roof and we've been slapped with a 500 quid excess and still cant actually claim for water damage
We don't live on a flood plain, infact we're half way up a bloody great hill off the beach.
As regards flood plain building and dredging etc that's another debate BUT general deforestation in higher catchment areas doesn't help, neither does water extraction. The later reduces water levels generally but also slows river flow and subsequently increases the rate of sediment deposit.
Council built investments (defenses) are required to show a 6 fold return, so no surprise that defenses were done at built up city areas.
I guess what I'm leading to is an overall degradation in society and it's fabric due to years of austerity and miss-management, added to a belief it's always someone elses fault.
I heard that the council were accused of not delivering sandbags till friday afternoon. They no longer "stock" sand bags due to cuts, and so need to be ordered in advance ffs.
Think hard 0n 12/12/19 eh ?

Sorry to hear of your flooding, what causes your flooding is it a brook of some sort that breaks its banks? Not being able to get insurance must be terrible. I thought the government had made companies provide flood cover that might be just for buildings.

I used to live in Hilton, we never flooded though parts of the Village did and nearby Hatton has always flooded caused by the Dove. For reasons I never understood they allowed new development on the flood plains - it flooded about 10 years ago. Flood defences have worked so far.

Why do planners allow such developments? If the developers were made to carry the costs afterwards they would stop building in such places. I guess they are attracted to the cheap cost of such land as it's pretty useless for farming.

 

[makeitfit]

Sorry to hear of your flooding, what causes your flooding is it a brook of some sort that breaks its banks? Not being able to get insurance must be terrible. I thought the government had made companies provide flood cover that might be just for buildings.

I used to live in Hilton, we never flooded though parts of the Village did and nearby Hatton has always flooded caused by the Dove. For reasons I never understood they allowed new development on the flood plains - it flooded about 10 years ago. Flood defences have worked so far.

Why do planners allow such developments? If the developers were made to carry the costs afterwards they would stop building in such places. I guess they are attracted to the cheap cost of such land as it's pretty useless for farming.

In our case it's simply surface water deluge Water drains are not maintained. Council no longer has budget for it.
After the Somerset levels flood, Tories promised all uninsured would be helped out. In Wales we're expendable votes

 

[macabethiel]

In our case it's simply surface water deluge Water drains are not maintained. Council no longer has budget for it.
After the Somerset levels flood, Tories promised all uninsured would be helped out. In Wales we're expendable votes

I guess that having the Welsh Assembly does not improve things then if they do not get the funds from Westminster.

 

[makeitfit]

I guess that having the Welsh Assembly does not improve things then if they do not get the funds from Westminster.

Yeeeees, lol. The problem seems that they were given some money for flood problems. Trouble is in Engerland, you could spend on prevention. In Wales they decided stock piling sand bags the way forward but we do have free prescriptions