Cliffords Tower is a significant visitor attraction in York, but most of the people in this shot have their backs to it, or are using it's mound as a vantage point to see the floods.
It was a grey and miserable day in 2015 when this shot was taken, and by this time there were many people out and about to see the floods. Most were quite sensible, but some taking serious risks by entering the murky water. It was impossible to see what was below the surface of the water, so it would be easy to trip over debris, or fall into a drain where the drain cover had been moved by the flood water.
So, my first rule of flood photography is to stay out of the flood water, and the second is to ensure that you have an escape route that rises away from the water. This can mean quite long walks between shots, even where places are close together, but that is far better than getting into difficulty and adding to the burden of already very busy emergency workers.
I hope that you have found this mini tour of the 2015 Boxing Day floods. This flood was not as high as the record breaking flood of 2000, which reached about 5.4 metres above normal, but was far more damaging than that because of the Foss Barrier flood gate failure.
Since then a lot of work has been done to improve the defences, and more is planned. It's a constant battle against nature.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Although there are quite frequent floods in York, they usually only affect a small number of riverside properties, and those properties have been modified to better cope with the floods.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Although there are quite frequent floods in York, they usually only affect a small number of riverside properties, and those properties have been modified to better cope with the floods.
Ian
Thank you Vesna. This was an unusually big flood, so hopefully quite a while before we see another one so bad.
Ian
It is amazing to see how high the water gets during an extreme flood. Fortunately it didn't last too long.
Ian