European flooding

[tim]

43 dead in Germany and Liege being evacuated.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-57853014

 

[weltweit]

Yep, some big rivers there.

I expect this will be reflected in the house prices once this event is gone by.

 

[tim]

How can you evacuate a large European town at such short notice, absolutely grim?

 

[yield]

How can you evacuate a large European town at such short notice, absolutely grim.

Liege has around the population of York or Aberdeen. Hundreds of thousands of people, how do they get out with the rivers breaking their banks.

Germany floods: Dozens killed after record rain in Germany and Belgium

The two countries and the Netherlands experience widespread devastation after record rainfall.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Sprocket.]

Devastating, they have my condolences and sympathy having had minor panics and lucky escapes ourselves over the last twenty years.

 

[The39thStep]

Yep, some big rivers there.

I expect this will be reflected in the house prices once this event is gone by.

First thing that came to mind when I saw how many were dead

 

[weltweit]

Liege has around the population of York or Aberdeen. Hundreds of thousands of people, how do they get out with the rivers breaking their banks.

Germany floods: Dozens killed after record rain in Germany and Belgium

The two countries and the Netherlands experience widespread devastation after record rainfall.

www.bbc.co.uk

Grim

 

[Flavour]

Pretty shocking to see that number of dead in Germany. Don't remember ever seeing so many dead from flooding in the UK

 

[Sprocket.]

Pretty shocking to see that number of dead in Germany. Don't remember ever seeing so many dead from flooding in the UK

The damage caused as seen in the reports seem to show the results of a huge torrent of water. The chance of escaping from something that washes buildings away I imagine are slim, similar to a tsunami. In the UK, devastating as the floods have been the water rises quickly but spreads out, the German/European floods seem to be channeled.

 

[weltweit]

First thing that came to mind when I saw how many were dead

Yes, it was perhaps insensitive, and as I wrote it I expected to be picked up on it. But I can remember earlier floods in many of these rivers and that people were unable to get flood insurance etc .. It does pale into insignificance where loss of life is concerned though, indeed.

 

[Chilli.s]

Wasn't the deadliest peacetime disaster the flooding and dam collapse in Sheffield? years ago

 

[Santino]

I expect this will be reflected in the house prices once this event is gone by.

I...

 

[Sprocket.]

Wasn't the deadliest peacetime disaster the flooding and dam collapse in Sheffield? years ago

That was in the late 1800s. There was a bad flood in Lynmouth Devon in 1952 that killed 34. I know about that because my eldest sister got an award from her school for raising money for the victims families.

 

[tim]

Wasn't the deadliest peacetime disaster the flooding and dam collapse in Sheffield? years ago

1864 over 200 dead
Great Sheffield Flood - Wikipedia

There was the tidal surge in the 1950s that killed hundreds here and thousands in Holland. I think all of Canvey Island was under water.

Edited to add: 2,500 deaths in total.

North Sea flood of 1953 - Wikipedia

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is quite a shocking picture

 

[Crispy]

There's a deep pit quarry just out of frame, which is where all that land has slipped into. (search for Blessem on maps)

 

[brogdale]

The before/after shots of the Rhur nr Essen, an area I'm pretty familiar with, are also pretty dramatic:

 

[a_chap]

I wonder whether RWE Ag (based at Essen) are apologising for decades spent mining and burning all that lignite...?

 

[editor]

Fucking hell - look at the way the skip is swept along the street

 

[Pickman's model]

The before/after shots of the Rhur nr Essen, an area I'm pretty familiar with, are also pretty dramatic:

View attachment 278818

View attachment 278819

To be fair the bank under the road does look like a flood plain

 

[editor]

Really grim stuff

 

[brogdale]

To be fair the bank under the road does look like a flood plain

It is, and the bridge design shows good fore-thought, but the level of water must have meant really bad news for all of the activities, businesses & some housing that sits pretty close to the Rhur just downstream from that bridge at Kettwig :

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

With the age of some places in Europe, I wonder how much building planning is possible to prevent flooding or ensure that there's nothing built up on the floodplain?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

With the age of some places in Europe, I wonder how much building planning is possible to prevent flooding or ensure that there's nothing built up on the floodplain?

Most stuff that was built on floodplains back in the day got washed away and folk learned their lessons. In the UK we are starting to build on them again, and being surprised that the houses get flooded...

 

[Pickman's model]

Most stuff that was built on floodplains back in the day got washed away and folk learned their lessons. In the UK we are starting to build on them again, and being surprised that the houses get flooded...

We would secure Boris Johnson to a pole in the basement of one these floodplain houses with a d lock round his neck to await a watery grave but the penguins must be fed - the penguins must be fed

 

[otzenpunk]

The inner tweet says: A caravan getting trashed at the Nepomuk Bridge, built 1723, the oldest existing bridge in the Ahr Valley. For 298 years the bridge never had to withstand so much water.

The outer tweet, about 15 hours later, says: The Nepomuk Bridge (built 1723) doesn't exist any longer. As most of the bridges in the Ahr Valley.

 

[weltweit]

I wonder if they had any clear warnings.

It floods here but the environment agency are quite proactive and there are water level charts online.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Most stuff that was built on floodplains back in the day got washed away and folk learned their lessons. In the UK we are starting to build on them again, and being surprised that the houses get flooded...

In some places in the US, it can be even sillier. You can get federal flood insurance that will pay out if your place gets flooded. Some places have been rebuilt more than once, at government expense. I think most local jurisdictions are now limiting building permits on such land to recreational use. Of course, when you do that, you get people angry that they're not allowed to rebuild.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The inner tweet says: A caravan getting trashed at the Nepomuk Bridge, built 1723, the oldest existing bridge in the Ahr Valley. For 298 years the bridge never had to withstand so much water.

The outer tweet, about 15 hours later, says: The Nepomuk Bridge (built 1723) doesn't exist any longer. As most of the bridges in the Ahr Valley.

I wonder if climate change is changing the flood plain maps. We have areas that were in the 300 year flood plain, that flood every three to five years.

 

[editor]

Not sure what this bloke was thinking