It really was quite scary @Busy-Lizzie ... I've rarely been properly scared in my life ... but Friday really wasn't great ...
What happened was ...
On Friday my son had decided to WAH because of the weather, but then he had a phone call from a colleague who said that she was trying to move all the stock in the warehouse to a higher area because the car park was flooding and they'd been warned that the buildings were vulnerable. She was on her own as their other colleagues were away at Doncaster, so he decided that he really ought to go and help her ... and off he went ... he got half way down the A140 and found it blocked by flooding so tried to find a way around it ... he was driving carefully through what was quite a shallow flood when a selfish idiot in a Range Rover steamed through towards him causing a bow-wave that swamped son's car engine and it stopped.
A very kind chap in a van waded through the water and helped him push his car onto higher ground, and then drove him to Diss station ... but the trains were cancelled because of flooding/landslips, so I set out to pick him up ... my drive to Diss station was uneventful except for the constant rain. However, in the few minutes it took to pick him up and get back to the A140 it had become blocked ... its an area of countryside we know well ... we used to live nearby, so we set out to find a route around the blockages, sticking to roads we knew to be on as much high ground as possible ... but each way we tried was blocked by deep floods ... school buses full of children were trying to reverse along narrow country lanes and there were abandoned cars everywhere ... within an hour the day went from being 'wet, but not serious' to complete mayhem.
We headed towards the village where we used to live as we knew there would be someone there would put us up for the night ... but we got as far as Horham and couldn't get any further ... we turned around but the small dips in the road had filled up behind us and banks had subsided onto roads .... within less than half an hour one area we'd driven through was so deep with floodwater that we just could see the roof of a red car floating sideways across the road ... I think/hope it had been abandoned ... I do hope there was no one in it, but there was nothing we could have done if there was. We also saw a lorry that had tipped sideways into a ditch because the bank had collapsed.
By then my son had taken over driving my car ... it's little engine was spluttering from all the water it'd been through, but it kept on going.
We pulled into the carpark at Horham Community Hall ... we hoped there were loos and perhaps a tap for a drink of water ... unusually for me I'd set out without a bottle of water. The hall was locked so we availed ourselves of the cover a nearby dense hedge.
There was a camper van parked in the corner of the car park and it looked occupied ... I saw a man get out of it so I asked him if he knew if there was a drinking water tap accessible at the hall ... 'There's one around the back' he said, 'but don't worry about that, you come in here and my wife will give you a cuppa' ... he wouldn't take no for an answer ... Jo and Andy were lifesavers ... they gave son and me cups of tea and biscuits and much kindness .... you've got to love someone who makes tea in a china pot with a tea cosy in a camper van. They also had three lovely and very well behaved dogs ... a Border Collie and two Jack Russells .... They said that they'd met a chap from the hall committee who was coming back to open it up and there'd be a warm fire and sofas we could rest on, and the bar would be opening anyway as it was a Friday evening.
That chap turned up within a few minutes and very soon we were sitting by a cosy electric fire ... another stranded couple arrived and we decided that we'd have to share the sofas for the night. Then lovely Jo got busy in her camper van kitchen and arrived in the hall with bowls of tomato and oxtail soup and buttered rolls.
I phoned OH to let him know we were safe and what we were going to do. He was worried that I didn't have my BP meds with me ... Andy asked what meds I was on ... he took the same type as I do and had a spare ... I know you're not supposed to take another person's meds, but it was a branded pack so it seemed the most sensible thing to do in the circumstances, and I was very grateful.
Anyway, the chap from the Committee then said would we like him to put a message out on the village Fbook page to see if anyone had a spare room for the night ?... at first we demurred ... we didn't want to put anyone to any more trouble, but he said people would really want to help, so we said Ok. Within a few minutes he was getting phone calls 'They'll have to take us as they find us, but they can have our spare room and welcome' was typical .... then a local farmer rang ... they had some holiday cabins on the farm ... most of those booked in for the weekend had been unable to get there ... the cabins were ready for guests and the beds were all made up ... he was coming to get us!!!
So we and the other couple followed his tractor through the village and to his farm where there were spacious and very beautiful luxury cabins ... my son and I had a two bedroomed one with two bathrooms, a hot tub and sauna (not that we used those of course) .... everything we needed was provided ... even toothbrushes and toothpaste were delivered to the door. Food was offered but we'd had the soup, there was tea, coffee and biscuits in the cabin and to be honest, we didn't really feel like eating. We were told that the cabin could be available to at least Monday should we need it. They wouldn't accept a penny. We are going to make a donation to the Suffolk Air Ambulance ... they attend lots of call outs to accidents on farms that would be inaccessible an ordinary ambulance. If anyone reading this ever wants a few days away in an idyllic location I can't recommend this place highly enough ,,, http://athelingtonhall.co.uk/ ❤️
We spent the evening watching GW.
My kingsized bed was so comfy that I did manage some sleep ... and when we'd woken and had some coffee in the morning we rang the farmhouse as we'd been told to. Amy said that her husband was out on the tractor looking for safe routes for us out of the village ... eventually he came back to us and said he'd found one ... then a few minutes later Jo and Andy texted from their camper van that they had used the same route and were out of the village and on the A143 and heading towards their home in Rutland (so now I know more lovely folk from Rutland @BenCotto).
We set off for Needham Market where son's workplace is ... half the industrial estate was under at least two feet of water, but fortunately it had receded from the slightly higher ground where their warehouse and offices are and thankfully Allie's heroic efforts had saved all their stock. Son found the owner of the car service centre next door to their business ... he'd been out all night rescuing cars (and even carrying an older lady through a flood before towing her car) and had had no sleep ... but he went off and towed son's car in so that next week the mechanic can see if it's saveable. Our fingers are very crossed ...
We left my little car there so that they can find out where the water is that's making it splutter .. the local news website said that the A11 had been reopened so son drove me home in one of his big Mercedes splitter vans he's the fleet manager for ... never have I been so glad to arrive home. Son had a bath and a meal and went to bed. He's still there.
It's been a helluva year for us ... son's accident and all that entailed, then my younger brother's death, the sadness and troubles in the wider world, and now this ...
OH has just helped me plant some broad beans in the garden ... it felt that we were planting hope for a better year next year ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Goodness me @Dovefromabove, what a day you had! So glad you and son are ok and survived, it must have been so frightening. As you say, most folks are very kind and helpful in circumstances like that.
We had an altogether much nicer day yesterday, met friends for lunch at a canalside pub and had a good natter. One of our members, who had been sadly widowed earlier in the year, was accompanied by her granddaughter home from uni - really good to have the younger generation joining in the conversation so well and looking after her grandmother.
The River Avon had burst its banks at Melksham where it usually does, one road out was flooded and therefore closed but fortunately the main A350 was ok. Think they'd done some flood alleviation works some years back which has helped.
We've got brilliant sunshine now and it's warm so will get out and do some hedge pruning and have a late lunch. Had a lie in and breakfast in bed this morning as OH was watching the US GP.
When I got home OH prepared and cooked the fresh mackerels I'd bought the previous day ... and made a lovely potato salad and a green salad too ... he's never cooked mackerel before but he can certainly do it again ... it was lovely.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh heck @Dovefromabove, so glad you all came through unscathed.
We have a dry sunny day here, went to check on the plots and "the big men" had moved the shed for me, they did it yesterday in between rain showers. So now I have to re-felt the roof and fit it out again, before filling it back up!!
Posts
What happened was ...
On Friday my son had decided to WAH because of the weather, but then he had a phone call from a colleague who said that she was trying to move all the stock in the warehouse to a higher area because the car park was flooding and they'd been warned that the buildings were vulnerable. She was on her own as their other colleagues were away at Doncaster, so he decided that he really ought to go and help her ... and off he went ... he got half way down the A140 and found it blocked by flooding so tried to find a way around it ... he was driving carefully through what was quite a shallow flood when a selfish idiot in a Range Rover steamed through towards him causing a bow-wave that swamped son's car engine and it stopped.
A very kind chap in a van waded through the water and helped him push his car onto higher ground, and then drove him to Diss station ... but the trains were cancelled because of flooding/landslips, so I set out to pick him up ... my drive to Diss station was uneventful except for the constant rain. However, in the few minutes it took to pick him up and get back to the A140 it had become blocked ... its an area of countryside we know well ... we used to live nearby, so we set out to find a route around the blockages, sticking to roads we knew to be on as much high ground as possible ... but each way we tried was blocked by deep floods ... school buses full of children were trying to reverse along narrow country lanes and there were abandoned cars everywhere ... within an hour the day went from being 'wet, but not serious' to complete mayhem.
We headed towards the village where we used to live as we knew there would be someone there would put us up for the night ... but we got as far as Horham and couldn't get any further ... we turned around but the small dips in the road had filled up behind us and banks had subsided onto roads .... within less than half an hour one area we'd driven through was so deep with floodwater that we just could see the roof of a red car floating sideways across the road ... I think/hope it had been abandoned ... I do hope there was no one in it, but there was nothing we could have done if there was. We also saw a lorry that had tipped sideways into a ditch because the bank had collapsed.
By then my son had taken over driving my car ... it's little engine was spluttering from all the water it'd been through, but it kept on going.
We pulled into the carpark at Horham Community Hall ... we hoped there were loos and perhaps a tap for a drink of water ... unusually for me I'd set out without a bottle of water. The hall was locked so we availed ourselves of the cover a nearby dense hedge.
There was a camper van parked in the corner of the car park and it looked occupied ... I saw a man get out of it so I asked him if he knew if there was a drinking water tap accessible at the hall ... 'There's one around the back' he said, 'but don't worry about that, you come in here and my wife will give you a cuppa' ... he wouldn't take no for an answer ... Jo and Andy were lifesavers ... they gave son and me cups of tea and biscuits and much kindness .... you've got to love someone who makes tea in a china pot with a tea cosy in a camper van. They also had three lovely and very well behaved dogs ... a Border Collie and two Jack Russells .... They said that they'd met a chap from the hall committee who was coming back to open it up and there'd be a warm fire and sofas we could rest on, and the bar would be opening anyway as it was a Friday evening.
That chap turned up within a few minutes and very soon we were sitting by a cosy electric fire ... another stranded couple arrived and we decided that we'd have to share the sofas for the night. Then lovely Jo got busy in her camper van kitchen and arrived in the hall with bowls of tomato and oxtail soup and buttered rolls.
I phoned OH to let him know we were safe and what we were going to do. He was worried that I didn't have my BP meds with me ... Andy asked what meds I was on ... he took the same type as I do and had a spare ... I know you're not supposed to take another person's meds, but it was a branded pack so it seemed the most sensible thing to do in the circumstances, and I was very grateful.
Anyway, the chap from the Committee then said would we like him to put a message out on the village Fbook page to see if anyone had a spare room for the night ?... at first we demurred ... we didn't want to put anyone to any more trouble, but he said people would really want to help, so we said Ok. Within a few minutes he was getting phone calls 'They'll have to take us as they find us, but they can have our spare room and welcome' was typical .... then a local farmer rang ... they had some holiday cabins on the farm ... most of those booked in for the weekend had been unable to get there ... the cabins were ready for guests and the beds were all made up ... he was coming to get us!!!
So we and the other couple followed his tractor through the village and to his farm where there were spacious and very beautiful luxury cabins ... my son and I had a two bedroomed one with two bathrooms, a hot tub and sauna (not that we used those of course) .... everything we needed was provided ... even toothbrushes and toothpaste were delivered to the door. Food was offered but we'd had the soup, there was tea, coffee and biscuits in the cabin and to be honest, we didn't really feel like eating. We were told that the cabin could be available to at least Monday should we need it. They wouldn't accept a penny. We are going to make a donation to the Suffolk Air Ambulance ... they attend lots of call outs to accidents on farms that would be inaccessible an ordinary ambulance. If anyone reading this ever wants a few days away in an idyllic location I can't recommend this place highly enough ,,, http://athelingtonhall.co.uk/ ❤️
We spent the evening watching GW.
My kingsized bed was so comfy that I did manage some sleep ... and when we'd woken and had some coffee in the morning we rang the farmhouse as we'd been told to. Amy said that her husband was out on the tractor looking for safe routes for us out of the village ... eventually he came back to us and said he'd found one ... then a few minutes later Jo and Andy texted from their camper van that they had used the same route and were out of the village and on the A143 and heading towards their home in Rutland (so now I know more lovely folk from Rutland @BenCotto).
We set off for Needham Market where son's workplace is ... half the industrial estate was under at least two feet of water, but fortunately it had receded from the slightly higher ground where their warehouse and offices are and thankfully Allie's heroic efforts had saved all their stock. Son found the owner of the car service centre next door to their business ... he'd been out all night rescuing cars (and even carrying an older lady through a flood before towing her car) and had had no sleep ... but he went off and towed son's car in so that next week the mechanic can see if it's saveable. Our fingers are very crossed ...
We left my little car there so that they can find out where the water is that's making it splutter .. the local news website said that the A11 had been reopened so son drove me home in one of his big Mercedes splitter vans he's the fleet manager for ... never have I been so glad to arrive home. Son had a bath and a meal and went to bed. He's still there.
It's been a helluva year for us ... son's accident and all that entailed, then my younger brother's death, the sadness and troubles in the wider world, and now this ...
OH has just helped me plant some broad beans in the garden ... it felt that we were planting hope for a better year next year ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The kindness of strangers gives me some hope for the future of the human race.
@Hostafan1, I don't know whether you saw my post, but there is a treatment for Cryptosporidium.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We had an altogether much nicer day yesterday, met friends for lunch at a canalside pub and had a good natter. One of our members, who had been sadly widowed earlier in the year, was accompanied by her granddaughter home from uni - really good to have the younger generation joining in the conversation so well and looking after her grandmother.
The River Avon had burst its banks at Melksham where it usually does, one road out was flooded and therefore closed but fortunately the main A350 was ok. Think they'd done some flood alleviation works some years back which has helped.
We've got brilliant sunshine now and it's warm so will get out and do some hedge pruning and have a late lunch. Had a lie in and breakfast in bed this morning as OH was watching the US GP.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We have a dry sunny day here, went to check on the plots and "the big men" had moved the shed for me, they did it yesterday in between rain showers. So now I have to re-felt the roof and fit it out again, before filling it back up!!