Word of the week - Floods

I should take up gaming. I think I'd be good at it.

Every day when I drive to work I feel like I'm in a live video game and each day is a new level with remembering where the pot holes are, looking out for new ones, learning the difference between surface water and flooding on a hill. Remembering where the road edge has collapsed but is now under water and mostly guessing how deep the floods are and trying to make sure I'm not the lead car (I prefer to take the van) and trying not to get annoyed with drivers behind me who have the easy drive as they can just follow my lead but tend to drive too close. 

Over the previous few weeks I've got to know the roads really well as we've had a lot of closures due to localised flooding which has been mainly small streams and brooks and water drainage off fields and road works.

This week we're on flood watch. Major river flooding which is going to cause big problems. I'm updating my Facebook groups and keeping an eye on the local council and agencies.

We don't have any rivers in the town where we live, but we have major rivers near by. The Avon in Tewkesbury, The Severn in Worcester, Upton and Gloucester and The Wye in Hereford and Monmouth.

Places you'll see on the news regularly, towns hit severely by flooding.

The Severn in Worcester this week. From the train.

The racecourse.

In 2007 Stephanie was living in Tewkesbury only 20 mins away. I did the route plan today, our normal route closed due to the Severn flooding at Upton, the alternative route is through country lanes.

The flooding was that severe, it took us over 2 and a half hours to reach her to bring her home for 2 weeks

We've not had flooding like that since, but we regularly get cut off from accessing Worcester, Gloucester and routes in the Forest of Dean where our family live. It was touch and go getting down for our grandsons first birthday this weekend just gone.

Two local lanes were closed over the weekend due to flash flooding, thankfully they had reopened by the time I needed to go to work on Monday, but it means now that if it happens again my options of getting to work are greatly reduced as my route via Worcester takes me on two roads with smaller rivers that have already flooded severely and involves detours on lanes only wide enough for one vehicle and if the Severn floods in Worcester it will be mayhem with all the traffic trying to reach the M5 and me travelling inn the opposite direction.  My route to Hereford is almost blocked off completely with The Frome and The Wye already in flood and road closures on the Malvern Hills, blocking my access to Ledbury and with Upton being flooded all that traffic is being diverted that way also.

The amount of water flowing down the hills made it tricky to walk down.

It also caused this road to collapse.

We had a break in the rain today and some sunshine today for a couple of hours, but more rain and flooding is due.

Post comment Love - 21st-24th November 2025

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

We'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter, tag us and we'll RT. You can find us on twitter here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby 

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

I was sad to see the pictures of Monmouth this week after the flash flooding when the River Monnow breached suddenly on Monday night. It's where I did my first parkrun the other week, where my family lived for nearly 20 years, where we had our flat when we lived abroad and where I visit regularly to see close friends of which one had a rental property that has been flooded. The town has suffered badly.

Tuesday morning the Severn had flooded local roads and on Wednesday morning I drove to work in the snow which cleared up quickly. There is a lot more flooding to come. It's really cold at the moment with bitter winds.

I'm off to the football tomorrow, I'll be travelling to Birmingham on the train and wrapping up warm. On Sunday I'm out for breakfast at a local garden centre with a friend and spending the rest of the day cleaning the house.

My last week to get the house sorted before Peter comes home from his holiday in Turkey. Just a few things to drop off with various people, but I think I'm all done now apart from putting the Christmas decorations up which may or may not be done on Monday night. They're behind the sofa so not in the way.

I've written most of the Christmas cards, not many to post this year. I've sent all the cards and gifts that go abroad and we've got child 4 and his family visiting mid December, although we took all their gifts over to them in October and child 2 and his family are coming Christmas Eve till Boxing Day, so I've plenty of time to finish buying their gifts and get them wrapped and under the tree.

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One Daily Positive - Week 8 Floods, family and friends

Finally feel like I've got somewhere with the cleaning. It's all done. Some of the damage I just can't repair, so new carpets for the stairs and the bedrooms have been ordered. A friend is coming round to do some jobs for us, such as putting up a curtain pole, sorting out some damp in a bedroom, fix a window and reseal the bath and the shower cubicles. Next job for me is to start the painting.

The garden is starting to take shape now, as in I've just pulled everything up and out, the new fence panels survived Storm Dennis and I've filled the freezer up with some batch cooking as I keep forgetting to eat.

Bob and I have had some lovely long walks, despite the rain and I had a lovely visit from Mary and her son.

Wow the rain was heavy, everywhere around is flooded, Mary managed to get through Upton just before the road was closed. The main road in and out was opened 24 hours after it flooded. Mum and niece are completely cut off in Monmouth.

47 Sunday Walked Bob, cleaned windows in the dining room and conservatory and the sliding doors, rearranged the upstairs and scraped all the paint off the light fittings and bathroom tiles, hoovered. We've only got one bedroom with any furniture in it so it was a quick job. In between the showers I dragged all the garden waste round the front of the house ready for collection on Monday.

48 Monday Dog walk and coffee. Cleaned all the windows upstairs and gave the bathroom and shower rooms another clean. Mary from Over40andamumtoone and her son came to stay, she literally just made it through the flood water before the last route into Malvern was closed due to flooding. We walked Bob to the retail park for coffee, had dinner and spent the evening with red wine and a catch up.

No photos today just a screen shot of the flooding

49 Tuesday We walked into town, had coffee and cake and explored the Abbey. We caught the train home. Mary dropped me at the retail park on her way home, I did some shopping and walked back in the pouring rain, no umbrella. The evening was spent watching TV and reading my book.

50 Wednesday Walked Bob to the coffee shop, he's settling in really well to the UK despite the weather. Caught the train to Worcester for a few hours. Spent the rest of the day touching up the paint work on the top floor and catching up blog posts, reading and watching the TV.

51 Thursday Visit from my nephew, his partner and their son cancelled as it's now Gloucesters turn with the River Severn flooding and their route to the M50 and M5 is flooded. Took Bob for a long walk, did some more painting and sorted through emails and filing. Bob is now sitting nicely in the coffee shops and not bothered by other dogs.

52 Friday Dog walk, then a visit from a friend with her 3 year old twins. I met Kathryn the night my dad died, she was a neighbour who came out to see if she could help and took in child 5 at 2am. She dropped me in town on her way home, did some shopping, home, dinner, painting, TV and bed.

53 Saturday A very lazy morning with tea and blogging in bed, dog walk, home to find these flowers from a friend on the doorstep and painted a door. Child 2, 2a and 2b came up for the day. I cooked a chilli con carne in the slow cooker, we popped out to the retail park for a coffee and shopping. The cat wasn't interested in the baby, but Bob was concerned when the baby cried, but kept his distance. Evening to be spent in front of the TV.

On the blog this week:

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One Daily Positive Week 10

Another busy week, catching up with all the things missed from last weeks snow. Peter arrived and I visited child 4 and 4a. Friday was a tough day for me. Although it was a proud day as a mum  I was very aware all day that Christine, my SIL, was no longer with us as several times I started to message her and tag her in posts for her share the day with me. Her name also pops up daily on nearly every Facebook memory with a like or a comment and it hurts. Strangely it was only the following day when I realized I’d not once thought about sharing the day with my dad and realized time does truly march on in many ways.

63 Sunday A lazy morning, a hot bath and a coffee in town, some blogging, a bit of cleaning, then I took 3 nights of dinner up to Mum's before seeing Miles Jump and friends at the Savoy Theatre in town. I sat front row, on my own.

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64 Monday An early start to Malvern to meet British Gas to get a price for a new boiler to be fitted tomorrow, encountered 6ft snow drifts on the journey, drove the teen down to Abergavenny then went to visit a friend in the Forest of Dean in the evening. Snow pyraminds in the car park.

65 Tuesday popped up to see Mum in the morning, then back to bed with a headache, stiff neck and shoulder pain and foul metallic taste in my mouth, back up to mums in the evening, a hot bath and an early night. The flood plain for the river is the opposite sided thankfully.

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66 Wednesday Felt much better this morning, still stiff and have taste in mouth, but no headache. Took the teen to Stratford, drove onto Warwick with the rest of Dad's cigarette and post card collection, spent a couple of hours wandering around Coventry where they were filming Nativity 4, hence the Christmas tree, before collecting Peter from Birmingham airport.

67 Thursday Back to Birmingham, returned the car hire and a visit to child 4 we checked into the B&B then walked to 4a's house to introduce Peter to the parents.

68 Friday Lunch with Prince Edward and the evening with 4, 4a and her parents.

69 Saturday spent the morning with 4 and 4a and a walk around the City, the afternoon in front of the telly watching the rugby and this evening we're all off out for a meal.

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Unfinished buildings in Dubai. The Pentominium 
Triumphant Tales, Tweens Teens Beyond, Best Boot Forward, PoCoLo Linkys
Crossing Boundaries, both physically and mentally.

HDYGG surviving the storm in Dubai March 2016

No one was expecting this. The weather app indicated rain and thunder but no where near this level. Roads were flooded, cars were floating, schools were closed and buildings damaged.

We are now the proud owners of a new sculpture (aka) the gazebo, that hubby cut up and removed this morning, I had to wash the curtains, cushions and rugs and by lunch time everything was dry, the sky yesterday and today was bright blue and not a cloud in sight. 

I'm now having to re think my outdoor shade area and will be investing in a swinging hammock as it's replacement, I have all the cushions, rugs and curtains from the gazebo, which are drying nicely.

I was worried the plants would've taken a beating with the rain and wind, especially when I saw the the damage from the rain in the sand, but everything seems to be doing ok. I had to drain a few pots out, but otherwise all is good and even the flowers remained on the plants.

It would also seem I've been wrongly blaming the birds for the lack of tomatoes, I saw Bob actually taking one off the plant and he snaffled it up as quick as he could. 

I've visited Dubai Miracle Gardens this week and had a trip out into the desert 4 x 4 driving which I'll link up with over the next 2 weeks for HDYGG and Animal Tales.

You can see more of the storms in Dubai on youtube.

Does it rain in South Africa?

Yes and lots of, but usually every few days for a couple of hours, which dries up very quickly, before the humidity builds back up for another thunder and lightening storm.

But it started raining here on the weekend and apart from a couple of hours relief, it's still raining.

So what? I hear you say, you should've been in the UK the last few weeks/months where people have been made homeless and lost everything to the floods.

Before you start on me, I'm from the UK, I lived there for 39 years and was there in 2007 when the floods hit the South West, we weren't flooded but we had a 4 hour journey from Malvern to Tewkesbury to collect our disabled daughter from her care home as they had no electricity or water and bring her home for a week to look after her.

There has been a lot of flash flooding and the force of the river took out the security fence last week, the golf course has been closed and I have to drive round the estate rather than through it as the bridge is closed. My car is getting mud splattered, I'm delayed and inconvienced. My washing hasn't dried and smells a bit musty and I'll have to re do it. Pot holes have appeared and despite having a 4x4 I can do an awful lot of damage if I hit one of them at speed.

But where am I going with this blog post?

Last week I drove to Mamelodi, the river has flooded, the hillsides are teaming with running water. It took me over an hour to travel a few kms as there weren't exactly pot holes in the road, there was no road and everyone had to drive on the mud outside peoples homes and shops, making the streets even worse. People's houses have been literally washed through and in some cases have been demolished, OK these people don't have a lot to lose in terms of people flooded in the UK, but what they do lose is EVERYTHING.

There are no journalists and reporters on the case (they're all in Pretoria, a few miles away, covering the Oscar Pistorius case) There is no military presence and no government representatives. There are no offers to temporally rehouse these people, why, they don't even live in a brick house anyway, no government handouts, financially or otherwise, no insurance payout and no one from neighbouring areas to make donations or raise funds to help them. No one is aware and no one is caring, they are on their own.

Until the water recedes these people are unable to get to work, send their children to school or buy provisions and when the waters recede and they go back to work (if they still have a job) they will have to work longer and harder to recover the money they lost when they couldn't get there.

Children unable to get to school

 Pot holes are everywhere

 Roads are un drivable due to the pot holes

 Unable to cross the river to get to work