And flood

Well it certainly rained today!
Newbury is flooded and so are most of the surrounding villages. After a tranquil evening in Bagnor, yesterday, when I took this picturewe had quite bit of rain. Apparently, today, the River Lambourn burst its banks and a picture can be seen in the picture gallery link here. (bottom of the page) I don't think I'm going to be able to get near enough to take a picture unless I go on foot.

I was naughty and went looking for floods. I didn't quite realise the extent of the flooding at the time but I soon found out. Having made the basic error of assuming it would be shallower round the corner and therefore, risking the first part of this flood, I didn't have a lot of choice but to go right through. Muttering things like "shit!" and "low speed, high revs" and " 'kin 'ell!!!" and other such heartening nonsense I drove through scenes that begged to be photographed but didn't dare stop! Couldn't anyway because there was more than enough chaos already.
Actually I'm not sure it was really necessary to drive up the kerb but everyone else was.Road lined with cars abandoned earlier in the day when it was, apparently, a raging torrent. People wandering about sight seeing, wondering if they could get through on foot, asking if there were other ways to get to here and there. Offering coffee to random passers by:) Standing around in bright yellow jackets not doing anything. Splashing barefoot or in waterlogged wellies through the water, cycling, driving along the pavements (mostly a foot under water).
Really after having committed the silliness of going to look for floods in the first place and then and compounding my idiocy by driving through them, I might just as well have done the sheep and lamb thing and waded in! Everyone else seemed to be wading!Instead, I stopped and parked further up where it was all frustratingly distant! On the way home, there were further floods. As there was no other traffic around and quite a lot of road, I took a picture as I drove through ("high revs, low speed - snap!")And later, one of my trusty car. Didn't it do well :)Last week I thought foolishly, Oh well we've had floods for this year then. Lucky us in the South, we've been let off. I was wrong wasn't I!
I've just been looking at the local newspaper on line. Reading about people's houses being flooded. Realising it's all over the South of England and South Wales.
Last week, it was the same story in the North and the Midlands.
A while ago in Mumbai (Bombay ) they had 4 Feet (FOUR FEET!!!) of water in 12 hours. All unprecedentedly high levels. People haven't seen anything like this in Newbury for 20 years. And then, not across the whole area. And it all came so fast. Funny thing though. When I think back to this morning's rain (and it wasn't raining when I went to bed last night so it's all happened in half a day or so) there was a lot of it but it wasn't really extraordinary rain. Just heavy and persistant. Isn't this the kind of thing we were told would come with global warming?

Oh well, it's time to go out and buy a canoe and some sandbags. But maybe some kind of amphibious vehicle would be most appropriate. Like a horse drawn canoe on wheels.