 |
6am, 7 July 2012, after I had
been woken by the roaring of the river and the noise of the rain. Water was just lapping into my rear garden.
The white dots are camera flash reflected
off raindrops!
It was so dark the camera insisted on flash. |
 |
6am, view of Packhorse Bridge
Sidford. A telephone
warning was received from the Environment Agency Floodline system at 6.57am.
I was outside at the time taking photographs
and getting soaked, so the system simply left a message......and didn't call back later. |
 |
View from across the river. At
this time the main road was still easily passable because no water had flooded onto it
from England's Close. This is
about the level it reached in August 1997, during the Sidmouth International Folk Festival
- the year it rained all week and flood water cascaded through the craft tent on the Arena
showground.
Those were the days! |
 |
The sitting out area and steps
of a neighbouring house are submerged. |
 |
Ditto. |
 |
8am, further rain has swollen
the river. The turbulence is
being caused by a submerged scaffold pole designed to keep cattle from straying under the
bridge. This broke free but was restrained (amazingly) by a piece of orange baler twine -
just visible on the right of the photo. |
 |
A drain cover in my driveway -
this drains straight into the river and so water 'backs up'. It serves as a useful river level gauge.
By about 10am water had overtopped the cover
- and nearly reached the level of the garage floor.
The garage floor is sloped, so that if water
enters from the driveway it will only progress so far - thus limiting any damage - in
theory. This was to be tested more fully on 24 November
2012....... |
 |
10am, and the pavement was
still passable with care. However, vehicles entering the flooded section of the A3052 at
high speed threw up water that dashed against front doors. This greatly annoyed the residents - who placed
trailers and vans to slow the progress of these vehicles. |
 |
Packhorse Close is useful in
itself as it is very gently sloping - so it acts as quite a sensitive water level gauge.
The amount of water here is determined by the extent of overtopping of the river
north of the bridge. |
 |
This is an ideal way to wreck
many modern cars. Water gets sucked into the low level air intake of the engine, causing
up to £5000 worth of damage. To
cross through flood water correctly, drive SLOWLY and in a low gear, slipping the clutch
to keep up engine revs, and thus keep water from entering the exhaust pipe. |
 |
A bemused foreign tourist. |
 |
10.30am and flood water was by
now well established from England's Close, the river having overtopped its banks to the
north of the bridge. The
river overtopped its banks on two separate occasions during the morning- both in response
to sudden increases in rainfall. |
 |
A brave dog walker - and a
happy dog? |
 |
Water reached the end of
Packhorse Close affecting a few properties in a minor way. Fortunately it stopped raining so hard.
In 1968 many properties in Sidford were
flooded - but these bungalows may date from the early 1970s?
Subsequent work on the river and including
construction of weirs tamed it to some extent. |
 |
A sensitive water level gauge
at the end of my front driveway. If
the water level had risen to cover all of the pavement (to the concrete join) it would
then be at the level of my airbricks - but it would have to rise much further to overwhelm
my flood defences.
Curiously, whilst the river is at the bottom
of my rear garden the major risk arises at the front - because the level at the rear is
limited by the amount of water that can get through the bridge arches.
Surplus river water then flows down
England's Close and even in this 'minor' flood the level was much higher at the front than
at the rear.
Measurements showed that the river level at
the rear was 350mm below that shown here, representing in effect the head of water across
the bridge. |
 |
At the height of the flood,
between 10am and 11am, both pavements were underwater. |
 |
And still some drivers seemed
to think they had urgent business that could not wait. |
 |
My next door neighbour - who
was totally unconcerned. They
lived by the River Sid for over 30 years. |
 |
Many gardens were inundated
during this flood event. The
tide-line of debris (mainly twigs) serves to record the highest level of the water
downstream of the bridge. |
 |
A risk in some properties is
hydraulic overload of the sewers - which can lead to foul water flooding out of WC pans
and baths. This is caused by inadequate design or sizing of the sewers. Fortunately, properties locally are not affected by
this problem.
The tidemark in this foul sewer shows the
highest level attained.
Usefully, this access cover is in my garden
- it serves a crude rainfall gauge but it is not an accurate river level gauge. |
 |
Twenty years ago I made some
special tools to remove the cover: two lengths of 22mm copper pipe and two bits of old
studding. Simply insert,
rotate 90 degrees and lift. |
 |
Defences were hastily put into
place to deter people from driving too fast and throwing flood water into dwellings. |
 |
The River Sid in a rage - a
view from the bridge at about 11.30 on 7 July 2012. This area of garden was now fully underwater. Incredibly, the
orange baler twine (right of picture) was still restraining the submerged scaffold pole!
I had to negotiate flooded pavements in
order to take these last few photos.
Curiously the area of land between the hedge
and the bridge had the grass deflected towards the bridge - indicating a 'reverse flow'
water current over this small land area. |
 |
Not suitable for swimming. |
 |
An swirling eddy in the A3052
at its junction with Packhorse Close. This
drain is at the lowest level of the road. However it is almost useless against the volume
of floodwater that came down England's Close.
By noon the rain had eased and the water
levels were receding almost as fast as they had risen.
But if heavy rain had continued throughout
the day there would have been serious problems.
This photo was selected for inclusion in the
MSN portfolio of 2012 flood photos. |
It is remarkable that the following day the Byes had almost completely recovered. The
flood water had subsided, twigs were strewn around in a few locations, there were a few
patches of mud, but you had to search for any substantial damage. Two small trees were
lost.
Extreme weather is nothing new: this summary for the southwest is from the Met Office
website:
 |
Aftermath photo 1: rear garden. The water level would have to have been four courses
of bricks higher before it reached the airbricks - but these are protected to an
additional 800mm depth. |
 |
Aftermath photo 2: the tide line to the north of my home.
The caravan (since sold) was sited on high
ground.
|
 |
Aftermath photo 3: I later spent over an hour shovelling mud from the
road.
The following day (see photo below) it was
washed and vacuumed by the local council. |
 |
Aftermath photo 4: junction with A3052 showing the site of the swirling
eddy (see a previous photo). |
 |
Aftermath photo 5: my rear
garden. Pity about all my
bedding plants.... |
 |
Soon the river water level will
fall as fast as it rose - and once again you will be able to paddle across. |
 |
Where angels fear to tread? This is actually quite dangerous, especially close to
the river bank. |
 |
Withn a season, the grass
recovers. |
 |
Substantial quantities of mud
were deposited on a few roads where fast flowing water suddenly spread out over a large
area. On the Sunday, the day
after the floods, East Devon District Council sent up to four cleaning vehicles to
affected roads. These included this large suction tanker fitted with high pressure water
jet equipment.
The road was power brushed, washed and
vacuumed.
It was the first warm and sunny day for what
seemed like months. |