Showing posts with label floods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label floods. Show all posts

Friday 14 February 2014

Waterlogged

Rather aptly, a few weeks ago, I started reading Tales from the Ark to my son at bedtime. It turned out to be a fictional prelude to the floods that have beset our little British isle. Thanks to the Old Testament, the phenomenon of flooding still has biblical overtones (for some residents of Henley-on-Thames more so than others). Nowadays, rather than hunkering down in our wooden ark, we take a more combative approach with sandbags, barriers and pumps. As the Atlantic storms buffet our shores, it has become a contest: the human species versus the global weather system.

Living in Henley-on-Thames, I know a few friends and family who have watched the river break its banks and consume their gardens and homes with inexorable ease. Tales abound of heroic rescuesgood deeds by neighbours, travel chaos and the evacuation of dogs (and even llamas) from waterlogged ground. Only today a friend told me how her husband had saved someone's new kitchen from watery oblivion by helping to divert some of the flood water in the village of Shiplake. It was celebratory cups of coffee all round!

For all the disruption and misery, however, there remains something oddly compelling about a landscape transformed into a waterscape. Our local bookseller, Jonkers, recently coined a new name for our aqueous town: Henley-in-Thames. Here are a few pictures of the flood, post Noah, circa 2014:



Flooded Regatta course in Henley on Thames
The famous Regatta course expands widthwise

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Stormy weather in Henley

In the beginning there was a UKIP town councillor and he had dominion over the good people of Henley-on-Thames. The name of this councillor was David Silvester and it came to pass that David had a message for his people. So he wrote to his local newspaper, the Henley Standard:
"Sir - Since the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, the nation has been beset by serious storms and floods... Is this just 'global warming' or is there something more serious at work?"
Flooding in Henley-on-Thames, Thameside
Biblical floods in Henley?
And that letter, linking the recent flooding in the Thames Valley to God's apparent wrath over same-sex marriage, was enough to unleash another storm. But behind the headlines this week about Silvester's folly, there was a quieter story about a community pulling together and the power of grassroots activism. 

It all started last Friday, when Emma Vanstone, a manager at BT Global Services, posted a message on Facebook. She alerted her friends, including the BBC Radio Berkshire presenter Andrew Peach, to Silvester's letter in the Standard. "Try not to spit out your coffee," she told us, before describing how Silvester had drawn "a biblical link between our recent foul weather, and the rights of our gay brethren to marry". 

Sunday 30 December 2012

Paddling in the flood

Welcome to the waterpark! Antediluvian pastimes are over. In the era of the flood, there is a new attraction in Henley-on-Thames. Throw on a pair of wellingtons and come on in. The water's lovely! This year is the wettest on record for England since records began in 1910. No wonder we are obsessed with the weather.



The river Thames bursts its banks
The River Thames has burst its banks and is twice as wide in places
Credit: William Lam


The Angel on the Bridge, Henley-on-Thames
Anyone fancy a pint? Of river water?
Credit: William Lam


Henley Bridge
The famous arches of Henley Bridge are half submerged
Credit: William Lam

The bandstand at Henley-on-Thames
Henley's Ark - the bandstand in the park has become an island
Credit: William Lam

Benches in the river Thames
Sitting ducks
Credit: William Lam

The carpark at the River and Rowing Museum
Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent marooned with only a paddle
Credit: William Lam

Man and boy in flooded river
Knee-high boots are recommended 






Emma Clark Lam is the author of A Sister for Margot