South Penines Flood Again!

WiredAndTeary wrote (see) on 23rd June

....Anyway the flood siren warnings were absolutely correct - the River Calder burst its banks last night and the centre of Hebden Bridge was flooded. Even worse affected was the next village of Mytholmroyd. Fortunately it has stopped raining and the river levels are now down a bit.

 I'm glad to say I live up a hill.

Not the wisest post I've ever made, this was the scene a couple of hours ago on the main road down the hill I referred to! A freak downpour on the hill aboveresulted in houses on the steep hillside being flooded. (You can gauge the incline of the hill by the height of the enbankment on the left). Fortunately only my cellar flooded but some neighbours have been less fortunate. The River Calder and Hebden Water have now again broken their banks again and Hebden Bridge town centre is flooded for the second time in two weeks.

The original thread I posted was about the state of the bogs on the Three Peaks walk - the road outside my house is now covered with 3 or 4 inches of mud/shit. and I'm 30m above the river!

Too close for comfort !

I grew up beside the 'other' River Calder... the one that starts in the same bog as yours, but flows the other way through Lancashire. Most of the time, it was just a shallow stream, but once it burst its banks and formed a lake 1km long x 400m wide. The house at the end of my street was flooded, and my house was only the fourth one from the end. Funny thing was... people didn't make such a big deal about flooding in those days.

Yes Paddy, but the Yorkshire Calder often floods with large lakes forming on its flood plains, which are of course uninhabited fields. However the centre of Hebden Bridge is just above the flood plain and last  flooded in 1930something , then 2000, now twice in three weeks. Oddly I was discussing this with a guy in the new Rohan shop in town last weekend, which had survived the first flood, but is situated right at the bottom of the Keighley Road (that in the picture) so it may not be so locky this time.

As for people making a big deal, well the economic heart of the town has been ripped out Last weekend two weeks after the first flood, the town was full of tourists, but half the shops,cafes, pubs and hotels were shut. Losing 3 to 6 months turnover isn't funny for a small business especially in this economic climate. Hebden Bridge only had four chain shops - a Co-op, a Boots, a Spar and now a Rohan, the rest are independents. They may be insured for damage and stock, but not loss of income. And will they be able to insure their businesses in the future?

Here's another picture of the debris washed down the hillside by the flash flood - the track down the hill still looks like a stream in spate some time later.