Storm Desmond

Its been a crazy few days in the NW of England after Storm Desmond passed through. We were out in Lancaster on the Saturday night at an Indian restaurant, sure it had rained all day and the roads were a little water logged, but I'd underestimated the severity of what was to come.

Kendal - the aftermath

There wasn't any obvious surface water near the restaurant when we arrived, but within one hour they were starting to evacuate it as the  basement filled with water. I had to wade through 6" of water to rescue the car, and only just got it out.

We drove home as various roads were starting to seriously flood and get closed by the police. The power went off on Saturday night at about 10-11pm and didn't really come back properly until 7am on Tuesday morning (there was a brief interlude when I was at work).  A substation had flooded in Lancaster meaning 40-60,000 homes were without power. Of course Lancaster didn't get as badly hit as Cumbria, which in many places was severely flooded with houses ruined and roads washed away.

Kendal - George who's house was flooded

The 3 days without power were sobering enough, nights cooking by candlelight, but we were the lucky ones, our power is now back and the house wasn't flooded. Lets hope the Paris Climate Summit actually achieves something to try and help future generations so that this isn't a regular occurrence. Interesting article that links in here.