We weren't posting photos over the Christmas period a year ago, although our cameras were busy, so we missed sharing with you the serious flooding in York that started on 26th December 2015.
Day 2 of the flooding (continued) and our walking tour of the floods took us closer to the city centre. The large building in the background is York's telephone exchange, which was taken out of use as the flood water continued to rise and water began to leak into it's basement. Suddenly we were back to a more primitive time - no landline phones, and no internet, and we began to feel rather isolated. Relatives seeing the devastation on TV and being unable to phone us became ever more anxious. We retuned our radio to Radio York, which throughout the flooding broadcast 24 hours a day with a constant series of updates.
We continued our explorations of the city to see where the water had got to. Navigation was a real challenge - a slight dip in a road could become a lake, so we were constantly retracing our steps to make our way from place to place.
The smaller building at the left of the shot is a sales office for new apartment blocks being built in an area known as Hungate - and most of the site was under water.
You sure get some serious floods. can't imagine how scary that must be.
we get power outages during freezing rain storms at times. the reflection is just awesome.
Excellent reminder of how devastating floods can be. The loss of any single utility is difficult to deal with, the loss of communication is dire indeed. Parts of South Australia have been blacked out for days after a storm brought down the power grid.
Thank you all for your lovely comments - it is fascinating to look back to the events of last year, and to compare that with this year. At the moment, river levels are very low, and there is little change of flooding without a substantial amount of rain over several days - and the forecast is currently dry.
Almost all properties that were flooded have been repaired and people have returned to their homes. There are a few businesses still closed - for example the Jorvik Viking museum won't open again until early April, mainly because the opportunity is being taken to upgrade the displays rather than just restore what was there before.
It was a horrible time for those affected but perversely created many photographic opportunities, such as this one. But build on a flood plain (Germany Beck) and wait for more floods...
j
Thank you both for your comments. It was indeed an awful event. We were fortunate not to be personally affected, but had friends who suffered. It was fascinating to see York affected in this way, and I took a huge number of photos, but I hope it will be a long time before things are this bad again.
Ian
January 2nd, 2017
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we get power outages during freezing rain storms at times. the reflection is just awesome.
Thank you all for your lovely comments - it is fascinating to look back to the events of last year, and to compare that with this year. At the moment, river levels are very low, and there is little change of flooding without a substantial amount of rain over several days - and the forecast is currently dry.
Almost all properties that were flooded have been repaired and people have returned to their homes. There are a few businesses still closed - for example the Jorvik Viking museum won't open again until early April, mainly because the opportunity is being taken to upgrade the displays rather than just restore what was there before.
Ian
j
Thank you both for your comments. It was indeed an awful event. We were fortunate not to be personally affected, but had friends who suffered. It was fascinating to see York affected in this way, and I took a huge number of photos, but I hope it will be a long time before things are this bad again.
Ian