Cornwall isolated by storm

It could have been anybody's voice. It just happened to be hers, that day. This is an incredibly silly derail. I like her, she's a grand person, but she's so far from the topic of this thread that she could be in another dimension.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
It could have been anybody's voice. It just happened to be hers, that day. This is an incredibly silly derail. I like her, she's a grand person, but she's so far from the topic of this thread that she could be in another dimension.

Rolfe.
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You may have a point.

ETA although 'derail' is an exceptionally bad pun in all the circumstances.
 
I find myself getting edgy, every time the traditional tv reporter , standing up to mid-wellie in water, says "The locals are wondering when things will get back to normal."

What if this is normal now?

Is the problem in Somerset all due to lack of dredging?
Or is arable and dairy farming on the sea bed just a doomed notion in principle?
 
It has been fine where I am over in the west. Very mild winter, wet and a bit blowy. The south west and Wales have really copped it as opposed to the north west and Scotland.

The lack of dredging appears to have been the big problem in Somerset. A false economy if there ever was one.
 
Is the lack of dredging an actual contributor to the floods, or is it just a convenient thing to blame?

George Monbiot said:
For a moment, that rarest of beasts – common sense – poked a nose out of its burrow and sniffed the air. Assailed by angry farmers demanding dredging in the Somerset Levels, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, broke with time-honoured protocol and said something sensible: "Dredging is often not the best long-term or economic solution and increased dredging of rivers on the Somerset Levels would not have prevented the recent widespread flooding."
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http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-floods-somerset-levels-david-cameron-farmers

Anyone know the actual research on this?

ETA I found a few sources, will read them later:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/water_pdf/dredgefs.pdf

http://www.ourcityourriver.co.uk/downloads/Dredging Leaflet.pdf

http://www.stcplanning.org/usr/Prog...n/Beneficial Functions/Dredging_Factsheet.pdf

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/river-dredging.html#cr

http://therivermanagementblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-geomorphic-effects-of-river-dredging/
 
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We'll in that case it's funny that Chris 'Lord' Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, has been panicked into promising to start dredging imminently. These guys are paid serious cash for a couple of afternoons a month. Don't they have to have some backbone when faced with the mob?
 
I thought this was going to be about Cornwall, Ontario, in which I would have responded, "Well, yeah, winter can do that here. Not often, but it can happen."
 
anglolawyer said:
We'll in that case it's funny that Chris 'Lord' Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, has been panicked into promising to start dredging imminently. These guys are paid serious cash for a couple of afternoons a month. Don't they have to have some backbone when faced with the mob?
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Not when the mob is tory voters who might switch to UKIP. In practice its largely irrelevant. the EA doesn't have the money for worthwhile dredging.
 
geni said:
Not when the mob is tory voters who might switch to UKIP. In practice its largely irrelevant. the EA doesn't have the money for worthwhile dredging.
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Expensive credging to benefit a handful of houses from once in a hundred years events. This is the power of TV and how it makes the politicos dance to its tune.
 
anglolawyer said:
Expensive credging to benefit a handful of houses from once in a hundred years events. This is the power of TV and how it makes the politicos dance to its tune.
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This becomes a problem when once in a century conditions start to recur ever 2-3 years.
There is a real question to be asked here. Is it economically justifiable to keep dredging or does it make sense to move everyone out of the area? Coastal erosion and coastal flooding are realities that must be addressed and the answer may be to give up some territory.
 
BenBurch said:
I'd condemn a line about 400 meters inland and relocate the network rail alignment.
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Very expensive. Thats some prime seaside property you are trying to build on.

There are better options for alturnative routes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26068375

and the existing line would probably be best kept for the use of the coastal communities and tourists.
 
geni said:
Not when the mob is tory voters who might switch to UKIP. In practice its largely irrelevant. the EA doesn't have the money for worthwhile dredging.
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anglolawyer said:
Expensive credging to benefit a handful of houses from once in a hundred years events. This is the power of TV and how it makes the politicos dance to its tune.
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Soapy Sam said:
This becomes a problem when once in a century conditions start to recur ever 2-3 years.
There is a real question to be asked here. Is it economically justifiable to keep dredging or does it make sense to move everyone out of the area? Coastal erosion and coastal flooding are realities that must be addressed and the answer may be to give up some territory.
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At the moment it's impossible to say whether we've had a couple of exceptional winters or whether this is the new normal. A couple of years ago we'd just had the second dry winter and were worried about wide scale water shortages.

If this is just a couple of exceptional years then maybe a bit of dredging will return the situation to normal but if this is the new normal then a comprehensive (and expensive) upgrade of the flood defences is required.

I think the Somerset levels are too large and too valuable to abandon entirely.
 
On the news it said that brunel wanted to build a tunnel at Dawlish, but the funds were not allocated. I googled Europe and it seems that the Netherlands have coped best. Here at Barton-on-Sea, the cliffs are quite high. They do not get battered much by the sea, but water draining from inland has in the past caused cliff subsidence.
(And Bolivia has flooded too!)
 
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