Noah can rest easy now....

Now ten days or so since the floods here in Langthorpe it was time for some photos of what the river should look like.  Not entirely true as there was torrential rain last night and the rather muddy water is about 50cm above normal levels; this is still 5.5 metres lower than last weeks record level.  The following pic shows some Giant Hogweed suspended in the willow to the left, which gives an indication of the flood level.  

In addition, the white water level scale attached to the bridge which tops out at 15.75 metres cannot be seen in last weeks photo!

Also compare the next photo with last week, now the detritus that was backing up against the bridge has gone.  Such blockages cause extra strain to the structure and the bridge was closed for 4 days allowing engineers to check the integrity had not been compromised.

Our house is actually just west of here and the water levels are artificially kept higher there due to the weir and the lock gates on the Milby Canal.  So the water level needs to 'fill in' the lower level river east of the weir before the level rises on our bit of the river.  It was still squeaky bum time for a while....

 

Here is a photo of our building, then a brewery for Mustill Brothers, and looking at the vehicles it must be around the 1920's.

It's a bit wet here.....

Arriving home from Ireland in the rain, it did not let up until the early hours of this morning, Wednesday.  The water levels on the River Ure outside were fairly high, and I spent much of a sleepless night keeping an eye on the Environment Agency websites.  With each update the levels were rising and the previous record was broken in the early hours, peaking 20cm higher than previous highest at around 7:00 this morning.

It actually peaked at 15.79 metres above datum point, some 6 metres higher than earlier in the week....

The access road to Waterside, the main road through Boroughbridge closed.

A view of the R. Ure from the front door.

From the main road bridge looking back towards Langthorpe

Just after taking these photos the Police removed everyone from the bridge to allow an inflatable to rescue stranded elderly people in sheltered accommodation in the buildings on the right and a couple from a barge that could not get off on the canal cut.

The only way to get back to our side of the river was to go right round on the old A1, the A168 by-pass to Kirby Hill and then head back south.  Where the A168 crosses over the R. Ure views back towards Langthorpe gave rather more of an impression of the scale of the flooding.  Our building is hidden by the large building with the chimney in the distance, the old Laundry, and the river is normally contained in a far more manageable strip between the willows...thank heavens for flood plains.

Still, could be worse, it could be raining....