A questioning mind

the black fox

the black fox

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Anyone that knows me personally and a few on here do ,will know I have a suspicious mind ,and I have been following the news re the bad weather and floods with interest but on a couple of occasions I have looked at the photos of people’s rooms and thought to myself who in there right mind keeps that much junk in I.e a kitchen ,or is it just a case of throwing stuff in to claim it back on insurance .
Also the parked cars ,now I don’t know the parking situations in a lot of these places but with a high flood risk forecast why in gods name park your car in a riverside car park . Surely high ground if possible would be a better option . I know it’s not always possible . But it’s a good way to get rid of a dodgy motor ..

I might be entirely out of order on this but once you get it in your head it won’t go away
 
Agree on the car parking. I'd stick mine as far out of the way as possible, especially as many policies don't cover floods (act of God and all that). It could well be that stuff has been thrown in to one room so they can start to clear another?
 
The car parking in flood prone places is just idiotic, but there again, I live in a place that can't get flooded.
 
I suppose it depends how prone the area is to flooding and what parking is available in the area.
Where I am we have a private parking area but because it's close to the town centre people often leave cars there
Overnight it's pretty clear but surrounding area is packed so it would be a long walk to get home
Luckily it's not prone to flooding
 
Tigger.ufo said:
Bosham Harbour .... a regular occurrence!
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But not the locals, seen that often when I've been there, and there is a car park not far away :rolleyes:
 
This photo was taken in 2003.
EMYnx5oWwAAtmkm.jpeg.jpg

This photo of the exact same area was taken towards the end of 2019. I wonder if they got the land cheap. ;)
EMZLIEoWwAA3oRC.jpeg.jpg
 
the black fox said:
who in there right mind keeps that much junk in I.e a kitchen.
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Me. I do have a mental health condition and a neurological condition though, so maybe I'm not in my right mind.

My house is not vulnerable to flooding (and this was one of my criteria when choosing a house) so it's not an insurance scam :thinking:
 
the black fox said:
Anyone that knows me personally and a few on here do ,will know I have a suspicious mind ,and I have been following the news re the bad weather and floods with interest but on a couple of occasions I have looked at the photos of people’s rooms and thought to myself who in there right mind keeps that much junk in I.e a kitchen ......................... etc.
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https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hoarding-disorder/
 
I'm pretty sure there'll be some fraud or at least a suspicion that some stuff is being lumped in with the genuine scrap when it could be recovered, how much of this goes on I don't know. I've seen non electronic and non soft furnishing stuff on TV being thrown out and wondered why it couldn't be just cleaned and I suspect some maybe could. I'd probably want to save what I had if at all possible but not everyone would. With cars many people are creatures of habit and can tend to be lazy and some will park their cars in the same place regardless of any threat to the car.

All this reminds me of my only experience with flooding, at a place I did some work at once. When I got there I was told that I couldn't use the computer I'd been using (a tower system, mounted on the floor but on feet so it was a good few inches off the floor) as it'd been flood damaged. There was no evidence of water damage anywhere in the room but I took the side panel off just to check and the inside was unsurprisingly completely dry so I powered it up and backed up my stuff. The site manager came raving and ranting and my reply was something along the lines that I wasn't interested in his insurance fraud but did want to back up my work and get out of his way. The next time I went the tower had gone and they'd put a desk top there for me.

I do wonder what will happen to insurance premiums and it must be heartbreaking to have this happen time after time. Another thing to think about is should we living and working in areas we know are flood plains.
 
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woof woof said:
I do wonder what will happen to insurance premiums and it must be heartbreaking to have this happen time after time. Another thing to think about is should we living and working in areas we know are flood plains.
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Why do local councils allow land to be sold to developers if it is prone to flood?
 
kendo1 said:
Why do local councils allow land to be sold to developers if it is prone to flood?
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If it's a private sale, then it's up to the buyer to do a search to find out
More a case of why do the local authority allow planning permission on land prone to flooding
 
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Semantics. It's what I meant but didn't say :)
 
the black fox said:
Anyone that knows me personally and a few on here do ,will know I have a suspicious mind ,and I have been following the news re the bad weather and floods with interest but on a couple of occasions I have looked at the photos of people’s rooms and thought to myself who in there right mind keeps that much junk in I.e a kitchen ,or is it just a case of throwing stuff in to claim it back on insurance .
Also the parked cars ,now I don’t know the parking situations in a lot of these places but with a high flood risk forecast why in gods name park your car in a riverside car park . Surely high ground if possible would be a better option . I know it’s not always possible . But it’s a good way to get rid of a dodgy motor ..

I might be entirely out of order on this but once you get it in your head it won’t go away
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People just do what are obviously stupid things, with hindsight, often because it’s something they’ve done before and got away with it. Done it myself driving into what turned out to be the River Nidd in flood ;).
As an example, I read this today:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/0...ed-same-glitch-days-before-deadly-2018-crash/
Tesla driver who seemingly repeatedly drove through a junction where the auto steering failed, while he was playing a game on his phone. Got away with it repeatedly ... until he didn’t ;(
 
Gremlin said:
If it's a private sale, then it's up to the buyer to do a search to find out
More a case of why do the local authority allow planning permission on land prone to flooding
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Yes, one has to wonder about that.
I have known of a planning application being formally opposed at the objection stage on the grounds of flood risk, objections declined, panning permission granted, 50 or so houses built then low and behold the nearby river overflows with the predicted result. Inevitably the hand-wringing / lessons will be learned brigade pipe up followed by the building of flood defences (which has transferred the problem downstream).
 
People intent upon flood damage related insurance fraud may get away with it the first time, but I would imagine their insurance premium renewal (assuming they get offered cover again) would go sky high; Insurers don't like paying out and would be keen to avoid a repeat claim if it happened again?

I don't think building properties liable to be damaged by flood on a flood plain is a very clever idea, but developers are still doing it. If they must build on flood plains, at least make properties flood proof.....
 
the black fox said:
Anyone that knows me personally and a few on here do ,will know I have a suspicious mind ,and I have been following the news re the bad weather and floods with interest but on a couple of occasions I have looked at the photos of people’s rooms and thought to myself who in there right mind keeps that much junk in I.e a kitchen ,or is it just a case of throwing stuff in to claim it back on insurance .
Also the parked cars ,now I don’t know the parking situations in a lot of these places but with a high flood risk forecast why in gods name park your car in a riverside car park . Surely high ground if possible would be a better option . I know it’s not always possible . But it’s a good way to get rid of a dodgy motor ..

I might be entirely out of order on this but once you get it in your head it won’t go away
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Many people live in the hope that it isn't going to happen to them, so wont move there cars to higher ground etc.

I very much doubt many people deliberately left their cars parked so they would get flooded. What would it achieve? Firstly at the very least there premiums will go up, the chances of getting a decent price for the written off car is unlikely (without a lot of hassle) the inconvenience, etc etc.

Regarding "all the junk" remember by the time the press get there many people will have already started emptying cupboards etc.
 
kendo1 said:
Why do local councils allow land to be sold to developers if it is prone to flood?
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That's a good question :D

If a new development predictably floods PDQ perhaps those involved in the approval process should be looked at with a view to prosecuting them. I'd imagine that if a few people not only lost their jobs (er… no golden goodbye, no sideways movement, just sacked with immediate effect) faced huge compensation claims and substantial prison sentences the incidents of new developments on areas that are predictably likely to flood would drastically reduce.

Back in my working days I was involved in product compliance and health and safety issue and doubtless if I'd completely cocked it up and something I'd approved killed people or caused significant financial loss I'd face legal repercussions and it really phases me that so many people get away with so much incompetence and there's so much ignoring of predictable outcomes.

Actually some stuff I was involved in did cause serious injury and me and my stuff was the first thing under the microscope and it's not a nice process but everything I'd done was of course spot on and defendable and if people are going to remove guards and over ride safety features and do things they shouldn't be doing that's clearly an issue of training, supervision and management.

Having gone through this a number of times I think the tools sanctions and punishments are there to be used so why aren't they?
 
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On R4 this morning one person (I think an MP) was talking about the floods, refered to only building "flood proof" houses in flood prone areas.

Now, what the heck is flood proof house? In the past the phrase used has been "flood resilient", that in the sense of what can happen is IMO the correct way of describing what is needed..................unless of course we will see as in some places abroad all the houses built on stilts/pillars say 12foot high with perhaps davits and a boat in readiness.

As opposed to more logically all ground floor rooms 'tanked' (for ease of cleaning & pumping out as needed) with services like the electric sockets 6 feet high on the walls.

PS on a side note ~ we went to Cobham a couple of days ago and the roundabout by the Sainsburys store was flooded significantly on one half (the traffic was being diverted all to the other half. But what puzzled and surprised me was two just deep was the water when the three vehicles (a van who made it through but conked at the further edge of the flood and two cars in the flood with water up to the bottom edge of the door windows) what made them think they could get through safely???
 
Box Brownie said:
On R4 this morning one person (I think an MP) was talking about the floods, refered to only building "flood proof" houses in flood prone areas.

Now, what the heck is flood proof house? In the past the phrase used has been "flood resilient", that in the sense of what can happen is IMO the correct way of describing what is needed..................unless of course we will see as in some places abroad all the houses built on stilts/pillars say 12foot high with perhaps davits and a boat in readiness.

As opposed to more logically all ground floor rooms 'tanked' (for ease of cleaning & pumping out as needed) with services like the electric sockets 6 feet high on the walls.

PS on a side note ~ we went to Cobham a couple of days ago and the roundabout by the Sainsburys store was flooded significantly on one half (the traffic was being diverted all to the other half. But what puzzled and surprised me was two just deep was the water when the three vehicles (a van who made it through but conked at the further edge of the flood and two cars in the flood with water up to the bottom edge of the door windows) what made them think they could get through safely???
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I read something recently about drivers removing cones from roads which had been closed because of flooding, it's just madness. I sometimes think that maybe they run diesel cars or 4x4s and think they can go anywhere. Many probably don't release that their 4x4 or diesel car air intake is likely low down and going to get submerged in deep water!
 
jakeblu said:
I read something recently about drivers removing cones from roads which had been closed because of flooding, it's just madness. I sometimes think that maybe they run diesel cars or 4x4s and think they can go anywhere. Many probably don't release that their 4x4 or diesel car air intake is likely low down and going to get submerged in deep water!
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Back in the day when my dad was a Black Cab driver...............the one I recall most was the FX4, that could go almost anywhere but the most intriguing thing was that the engine & ignition was oh so 'old school':-
Manual heater plugs to start it
A kill switch that I think worked by flooding the engine..................because turning off the ignition switch did not stop the engine. This feature alone meant that it could be driven in quite deep water!
With modern diesel engine management this would never be a safe idea, or at least not in anything but a 4x4 type :lol:

More latterly re: low placed air intakes! The first version of the Renault Espace ~ there was a case of someone who drove into what not much more than a deep puddle but they did it at speed, this caused a mini bow wave that washed over the front bumper....................right where they had the air intake, completely daft design for such large high vehicle, hydraulic lock was the end result. AFAIK/recall the next model had a redesign and the air intake was in the upper area of the engine compartment!
 
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Where we live there used to be a stream just a few yards away. It's long gone now but if you know what to look for you can see where it went. We've never been flooded but water used to come up out of the drains further up the road and my sister next door only yards further down had water coming up through the floor boards once and it blew the electrics on the ground floor. Further down the road the drop is even more pronounced and the water has been over knee deep. Later the council dug the road up and installed larger pipes and it's never happened since but some gardens including a small section of ours still regularly get completely saturated and has standing water.

My point is that the path of the now gone stream and the steady visible drop down from the hill to the river is real and easily visible and yet everything about the area and the potential for flooding seemed to have been ignored for decades until the council upgraded the drainage. This could and should have been done during the initial development. I suppose it's worse these days as there are more roads, probably fewer trees and more people have paved over gardens and thus there's probably faster run off.

Flooding should surely rarely be a completely unpredictable and unexpected thing.
 
There was a report locally that a car had passed a "road closed" sign, on realising the water was too deep the person reversed the car knocking over the road closed sign and drove off. Had nobody witnessed this other drivers not seeing the sign may have attempted to drive through the flood. The witness put the sign back in it's proper place.
 
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I once ran into a couple of feet of water on a dark night in a Renault 16. It was entirely my own fault because I knew the road and its problems. I was agreeably surprised when the Renault's engine didn't stall and I was able to reverse out. Several years later I took my Peugeot 306 through the ford at the bottom of the valley and it stalled in less than 18 inches. A kind neighbour had to drag me out with his tractor.
 
nilagin said:
This photo of the exact same area was taken towards the end of 2019. I wonder if they got the land cheap. ;)
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Remind me, how well does water and electricity work together?
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I once ran into a couple of feet of water on a dark night in a Renault 16. It was entirely my own fault because I knew the road and its problems. I was agreeably surprised when the Renault's engine didn't stall and I was able to reverse out. >< ....
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I may have told this before. I came a humpback bridge with water over the road, and misjudged the depth for various reasons and drove my Fiat Punto into it at a slow but steady pace, at some point I realised the car was floating forward. I reversed at high speed I suppose hoping to get some grip. Despite the high revs the car very gently drifted back and eventually got a grip! When I got out I found that parts of the wheel trims had distorted and looking at them you could see the trims were shaped like turbines and water had been driven out through the holes, so in fact I had been driving a boat for a short time ;) Only cost me a couple of trims and a long wait for the car to dry out.
 
DG Phototraining said:
A bit on the news yesterday make be chuckle when a reporter said something like

These house were built on a flood plain and its just terrible that its flooded with all this damage

Errr what? o_O A flood plain flooded? Well fancy that :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Dave
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:lol:
 
Perhaps I've got too simple a mind but if you build on a flood plain why not build your house so it floats?

Narrow Boats at Long Buckby Wharf R1_00479.jpg
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Perhaps I've got too simple a mind but if you build on a flood plain why not build your house so it floats?

View attachment 269264
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Yes, in fact the Dutch have built floating houses (recently), not houseboats, can’t remember the details but they are fairly normal looking houses. There’s also the example of the house called “Queenslanders” (guess where) that are raised off the ground on piles — intended more for torrential rain rushing over the ground.

Edit: http://www.floatinghomes.ltd.uk/netherlands.html
 
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sphexx said:
Yes, in fact the Dutch have built floating houses (recently), not houseboats, can’t remember the details but they are fairly normal looking houses. There’s also the example of the house called “Queenslanders” (guess where) that are raised off the ground on piles — intended more for torrential rain rushing over the ground.
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A very long time ago I saw an article in a magazine (possibly the American "Popular Mechanics") about houses that combined both principles. When flooded, the house was raised on hydraulic rams and then lowered when the water receded. The technology is there but the will isn't, I'm afraid.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
A very long time ago I saw an article in a magazine (possibly the American "Popular Mechanics") about houses that combined both principles. When flooded, the house was raised on hydraulic rams and then lowered when the water receded. The technology is there but the will isn't, I'm afraid.
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There was a house like that on telly last year I think.
Sure it was on grand designs.
Found it...
https://g.co/kgs/fikbQ2
 
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DK602 said:
He never gives up with 'bashing' Tesla - how sad!
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At least it was only a car park & a few charging points, it could have been flooded houses or business premises. It will soon dry out when the water levels fall.
 
Jelster said:
Agree on the car parking. I'd stick mine as far out of the way as possible, especially as many policies don't cover floods (act of God and all that).
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Nope. Pretty much all policies cover "acts of god" these days. Fully comp ones, obvs. If you only have third party then you are literally on your own ;)
 
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