UK Weather Warning: BIG STORM COMING!

There is a high risk of severe weather affecting parts of southern England during Saturday, with severe gale force south to southwesterly winds expected across southern counties. The area of strongest winds will transfer eastwards during the morning, with gusts to 65 to 75 mph likely, along with a risk of gusts to 80 mph or more in some coastal areas. These winds are likely to cause some damage to trees and perhaps buildings, but will ease from the west through the afternoon.

Issued at: 2216 Fri 13 Novhttp://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_warnings.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtENiLiXOY

CRIVENS!It was like walking into a wall of water

MY LEG DISSOLVEDED

what a shame this didn't happen in the North, then at least i wdn't have to listen to this shit on the news all day

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/2/11/1392115408198/36c20d9d-2d65-4066-9f4d-1ffdaca1f3fe-460x276.jpeg

wondering if the navy ever get drafted in to lay sandbags when e.g. the humber threatens to flood

The country is drowning and the people who are supposed to be in charge are playing “adversarial” politics, i.e. the BUT HE STARTED IT SIR anti-school of thinking and non-action. But Labour can’t be trusted on The Economy so there’ll be more of this until presumably there’s nothing left but Shoreditch-on-Sea where nobody will be able to afford to live anyway unless they’re “buccaneers” or “geniuses.”

kind of interested in what happens if there's a load of rain upstream and they also have to raise the thames barrier to protect london from a storm surge at the same time so there's no outflow

Seeing a lot of disgruntled people on twitter talking about how this is going to be "Cameron's Katrina Moment" which really makes me want to say "you really don't understand *anything* about American politics, do you?" o_0

meanwhile the daily mail has apparently launched a petition calling for all foreign aid to be diverted to help uk flood victims

wondering if the navy ever get drafted in to lay sandbags when e.g. the humber threatens to flood

Humber flooded just before Christmas and as far as i remember the answer is no

it could've been yes, you wouldn't have seen any national news coverage anyway. a bit like when thousands of homes in Hull were flooded a few years back.

I'm waiting for someone to come up with the British equivalent of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2ysu1RWLA

Still, Datchet is safe.

if only this rising tide threatening the Home Counties worked as an allegory for something

holy shit, that record! xxp

Seeing a lot of disgruntled people on twitter talking about how this is going to be "Cameron's Katrina Moment" which really makes me want to say "you really don't understand *anything* about American politics, do you?" o_0

I'm not particularly up for using the floods to bash Cameron and co with, but Katrina, was obviously a political disaster for George W Bush- why is it an inappropriate thing to say if you *do* want to see Cameron hung out to dry (heh), for this?

Wonder if this'll get Facebooked back into the charts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMxAp2-Afc

Still, Datchet is safe.

― Mark G, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:17 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spent the first six months of my life there I'll have you know. perhaps why the Lord in his kingdom has afforded it protected status

Is there generally an idea of what people want done to stop things like this happening in the future? With Katrina it was pretty clear that the levees had been massively neglected but flooding in the UK is such a complicated thing, dependent on everything from the speed of rivers to the number of people paving their gardens, there doesn't seem to be an easy solution on the table.

it could've been yes, you wouldn't have seen any national news coverage anyway. a bit like when thousands of homes in Hull were flooded a few years back.

meant to respond to this btw but was too busy smdh

xp

deepen and widen all rivers to 300 percent capacity, allow natural reservoirs to form in failing Northern cities, more human sacrifices to the weather gods as necessary

I tend to take Monbiot with a heavy truckload of salt but this was interesting:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes

I'm not particularly up for using the floods to bash Cameron and co with, but Katrina, was obviously a political disaster for George W Bush- why is it an inappropriate thing to say if you *do* want to see Cameron hung out to dry (heh), for this?

Because it also fails to acknowledge the hugely complicated racial aspects of the Katrina disaster (for which Bush was quite rightly castigated) but do not adequately translate into UK terms.

There is certainly a case to be made for the way that the *focus* on the UK floods is "OMG disaster!" when it's in the Home Counties, but ignored when half of Hull is underwater or Cornwall becomes an island for three months a year on a regular basis, is hugely informed by class and the North/South divide (though where does that leave the West?)

But I think a direct comparison between race and class in this case is insensitive and rather ignorant?

OK, with you.

I’m not sure the perceived preferential treatment being given to the Home Counties is a particularly accurate picture. People in Wraysbury – a place I know very well – are saying they’re getting zero help, and that’s hardly a working class socialist paradise.

It may well be that a lot of Tory and Lib Dem voters in those affected areas are realising that actually some public services are worth paying for and you don’t half miss them when they’re gone, but any comparison with Katrina just doesn’t stand.

My point wasn't about "treatment" it was about "coverage"?

Quite - that's why I said "perceived," in that any "truth" is filtered through whichever angle of the media can trust itself to focus on it until you're left with what the media chooses to cover, i.e. that which will appeal most readily to the 10% of floating voters, who are the only people any political party really cares about, rather than what's actually happening, where and why.

I’m not sure the perceived preferential treatment being given to the Home Counties is a particularly accurate picture. People in Wraysbury – a place I know very well – are saying they’re getting zero help, and that’s hardly a working class socialist paradise

2.06pm GMT The military has arrived in force to help evacuate homes at risk of flooding in Wraysbury, Robert Booth reports.

Eight truck loads of troops from a fusiliers regiment arrived in the last 90 minutes. They are teaming up with local volunteers and boats to map out who needs what.

“About time” is the sentiment of many locals.

bankers being bailed out by the public purse again innit

You could say that it’s amazing what a Metro front page will get you.

On another level I’m not going to sink (ahem) to the level of making fun of people in peril, whatever their status or background.

the locals do seem to have quite some leverage with the media:

https://twitter.com/TheSunNewspaper/status/433249417676607488

Here's where I tell the story of how my sister worked for the Army 5 or 6 years ago, based in an Army camp somewhere in the South of England. After work, she was having a conversation in the bar on the camp with an officer who, noticing she was Scottish, said it was ironic she had come down to Scotland to work for the Army when the Army had all sorts of contingency plans to move operations in the opposite direction because, "...more and more of the South of England will be underwater in the coming decades".

... Scottish referendum has potentially put the kibosh on that though

Give it another 150 years and they'll be machine-gunning down the miserable wretches fleeing England's foetid swamps at the Scottish border

Just had a couple of seagulls flying backwards at speed past my window.

said it was ironic she had come down to Scotland to work for the Army when the Army had all sorts of contingency plans to move operations in the opposite direction

only doubtfully ironic tbh think officer was hitting on ur sis

Report from the BBC:

The Press Association is reporting that Environment Agency staff are not being sent to a flood-hit area because of hostility from members of the public. It is understood staff were abused in the Wraysbury area of Berkshire, and have now been told to report any incidents to the agency.

Nice job there, Tories

Trees on my street shaking down to the roots. Down to the rrrrrroots.

This sounds ominous but we are just trying to speak to Virgin to find out if they have been hacked or things have got a lot more serious.

NEW: ALL CUSTOMERS TO ABANDON TRAVEL #UKSTORM
— Virgin Trains (@VirginTrains) February 12, 2014

Seeing pictures of Shepperton under water has made me think that Wheatley is filming the wrong book.

^ ^ ^

I had that exact thought today, I bet a lot of ppl did

getting some strong westerly winds tonight, which according to met office hyperbole will be "the jet-stream on steroids" and will be more powerful by the weekend.

sodastream on germaloids more like

lol

It ain't hurricane season, that is for sure!