Well we’re both home, and as of about 9:30pm tonight we managed to get the cars back too. Beth also managed to make it a short walk from home, but on the wrong side of this flood across the edge of the army base. At this point she just parked up and waded out. We then walked back down a couple of hours later to take a look to find this guy who had made it almost all the way through – it was over Beth’s knees wading through, so most of the onlookers thought he was lucky to have made it that far. Another car later on that had a go barely made it in before the car packed up – unfortunately that car had two mothers and toddlers and they were trying to get to the hospital. Luckily another car that was there helping out a friend who had also got stuck gave them a lift on to the hospital.
Anyway, about 9pm another one of our neighbours came home and said that they had both come across the bridge at Barkham without too much problem, and offered to give us a lift to go and collect the cars. Although the flood on the edge of the base was still there – and even crossed back across the road further up, there was no water at all over the bridge. The rumour that the bridge had washed away also proved to be wrong thankfully. So by going the slightly scenic route we were able to collect both cars – although the various cars stuck in this particular flood were still stranded.
It looks like although the flood at the bridge looked considerably more spectacular – as it is a river anyway, the water was able to clear pretty quickly. Places like this where there isn’t usually a river, all the water has collected.
According to the weather forecast the rain has moved north, so we’re a good deal better off than some other places in the country where it has rained continuously all day. We’re also a lot better off than Windsor, Maidenhead and Thatcham, all of which have significant numbers of houses under water – as can be seen on this BBC News Report. Although it was frustrating struggling to get home, it was certainly a relief to get home to a dry house and our thoughts are certainly with those people around the area who haven’t been so lucky.
And apparently all of this is because the jetstream is running further south than usual…
