Flooding in Guildford
Jan. 8th, 2014 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953Over Christmas I was staying with my sister in Northumberland and occasionally seeing reports on the news about flooding and power cuts in the south. I wasn't too worried about flooding. For those who don't know Guildford, it's situated where the River Wey cuts through the North Downs. The result is that most of the town is uphill from the centre, and my house is no exception.
I was more worried about having no power and my freezer having thawed out, or that my satellite receiver had been affected by the weather and nothing was recorded (not that there was much to watch over Christmas).
The power was OK when I got home and the satellite was still operating (and as it hadn't changed channel, I knew the power hadn't gone off at all), but the cul-de-sac I live in is a local minimum and the drain at the lowest point keeps getting blocked or backing up so there was quite a large puddle in the road outside my house when I returned, although it hadn't actually reached the kerb. And there was a tree down just round the corner blocking part of the road. This appears to have come down on the Monday before Christmas and they just got round to clearing it today.
I did make a trip into the centre of Guildford on New Year's Eve but don't recall seeing anything amiss. I was there again yesterday, and things were different.
The two main shopping streets in Guildford are North Street and the High Street. They run parallel to the east up from the river. My route to the town centre takes me over a bridge that leads to North Street (and the site of an old friary, now the Friary Centre shopping mall). As I crossed the bridge I noticed the river was somewhat high. There is a footpath that runs along the west side of the river and this was completely submerged. One of the office buildings that is on that side of the river had a metal fire escape staircase running down into the river.
Walking up North Street I got to the White Lion Walk, a shopping arcade that runs between the two main streets. This was closed due to flooding. It's a long way up the hill from the river and I can only assume that water running down off the hills had decided the quickest way to the river was through the arcade. The shops at either end of the arcade have secondary exits to the street but these were closed with the exception of Starbucks.
So, curious as to what else had been affected, I walked down the Hight Street back towards the river. At the bottom of the hill, on the corner of a cross street is a branch of Wagamama's. That was closed, with a notice stuck on the window about how they'd received a visit from their neighbour the Wey. Looks like they are going to have to do an extensive re-fit before they can re-open.
Opposite that, actually on the banks of the river, is a branch of Debenhams. They have been flooded often in the past; the lowest sales floor is actually below the level of the river. They appeared to be trading normally. Outside, where there is no building between the road and the river, just a grassy bank, a medium-tech portable barrier had been installed presumably to stop the road from flooding. Elsewhere, there were a lot of sandbags around.
The White House pub across the river seemed to be still open, although I think their patio was under water. Across the road, the George Abbott looked like it was needing drying out.
Round the corner, there was a light-brown smelly, sludgy liquid on the pavement seeping out of a manhole cover. I suspect a sewage pipe has become blocked.
I was more worried about having no power and my freezer having thawed out, or that my satellite receiver had been affected by the weather and nothing was recorded (not that there was much to watch over Christmas).
The power was OK when I got home and the satellite was still operating (and as it hadn't changed channel, I knew the power hadn't gone off at all), but the cul-de-sac I live in is a local minimum and the drain at the lowest point keeps getting blocked or backing up so there was quite a large puddle in the road outside my house when I returned, although it hadn't actually reached the kerb. And there was a tree down just round the corner blocking part of the road. This appears to have come down on the Monday before Christmas and they just got round to clearing it today.
I did make a trip into the centre of Guildford on New Year's Eve but don't recall seeing anything amiss. I was there again yesterday, and things were different.
The two main shopping streets in Guildford are North Street and the High Street. They run parallel to the east up from the river. My route to the town centre takes me over a bridge that leads to North Street (and the site of an old friary, now the Friary Centre shopping mall). As I crossed the bridge I noticed the river was somewhat high. There is a footpath that runs along the west side of the river and this was completely submerged. One of the office buildings that is on that side of the river had a metal fire escape staircase running down into the river.
Walking up North Street I got to the White Lion Walk, a shopping arcade that runs between the two main streets. This was closed due to flooding. It's a long way up the hill from the river and I can only assume that water running down off the hills had decided the quickest way to the river was through the arcade. The shops at either end of the arcade have secondary exits to the street but these were closed with the exception of Starbucks.
So, curious as to what else had been affected, I walked down the Hight Street back towards the river. At the bottom of the hill, on the corner of a cross street is a branch of Wagamama's. That was closed, with a notice stuck on the window about how they'd received a visit from their neighbour the Wey. Looks like they are going to have to do an extensive re-fit before they can re-open.
Opposite that, actually on the banks of the river, is a branch of Debenhams. They have been flooded often in the past; the lowest sales floor is actually below the level of the river. They appeared to be trading normally. Outside, where there is no building between the road and the river, just a grassy bank, a medium-tech portable barrier had been installed presumably to stop the road from flooding. Elsewhere, there were a lot of sandbags around.
The White House pub across the river seemed to be still open, although I think their patio was under water. Across the road, the George Abbott looked like it was needing drying out.
Round the corner, there was a light-brown smelly, sludgy liquid on the pavement seeping out of a manhole cover. I suspect a sewage pipe has become blocked.
