The great of flood 2012
As you may have seen on the national news, on Friday evening my new hometown Mytholmroyd suffered quite serious flooding after a month's worth of rain was poured into the Calder Valley in just 24 hours. The river Calder had been running pretty high all day but it seemed to be coping with the volume of water. Just before 8pm I heard the faint sound of the flood warning sirens echoing down the valley, presumably from Hebden Bridge or Todmorden. About 10 minutes later the Mytholmroyd siren sounded. By 8:30pm it was clear a significant amount of water was starting to gush down the Burnley road (A646), the main road through the town. I braved the heavy rain for a bit to go investigate, already quite a few bystanders had gathered to watch the unfolding event.
The traffic was soon reduced to one lane as the waters on the lower side of the road rose. The police were rapidly on the scene and they started redirecting traffic up Caldene Avenue which is on higher ground.
Before long though the road was becoming impassable and was closed around 9:45pm. By 10pm the water was flowing so fast it carried most of the traffic cones that had been placed across the road away and even pulled away the sandbagged down metal diversion sign. By this point the water was well above the curb and presumably starting to flood all the road side shops and houses. By 10:20pm I could see from my flat that the post office was flooded with water reaching about a third of the way up the pillar box outside the entrance. People still trying to make their way down the road on foot had muddy, fast flowing water almost to their waists at this point.
By 11pm the water was well over half way up the pillar box and must have been near a metre deep from the road level. Worryingly it had also reached the bottom of the steps up to my building's car park which was a bit close for comfort.
I finally went to bed around midnight after the strange experience of watching a live BBC news report coming from literally just down the road. I woke around 5am and went to check on things and found the flood waters had receded, leaving muddy residue on the road and pavements outside along with various debris. The canal was significantly fuller than I've seen it before, with the water level only a few inches from the top, but the stretch of it outside my building hadn't flooded thankfully. The power, which had stayed on through the flooding, went out in the morning and proceeded to go on and off until the early afternoon.
Later I was able to see the full extent of the flood damage - all the shops and houses along the lower parts of the Burnley road through Mytholmroyd were flooded. Up the road in Hebden Bridge things were a horrible mess too. Many of the lovely little shops and cafes had been inundated with filthy water. We saw the fire brigade pumping flood water from the basements of some of the buildings and the sad mess of ruined carpets and stock sat out on the pavements as shop owners did their best to scrape the sludge from their floors.
Happily though as soon as Sunday afternoon things were starting to get back to normal. One or two flood hit shops had already reopened and power was properly restored. It's certainly going to be awhile before the worst effected areas recover fully, but hopefully with the support of the local community Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd can get back on their feet.
The traffic was soon reduced to one lane as the waters on the lower side of the road rose. The police were rapidly on the scene and they started redirecting traffic up Caldene Avenue which is on higher ground.
Before long though the road was becoming impassable and was closed around 9:45pm. By 10pm the water was flowing so fast it carried most of the traffic cones that had been placed across the road away and even pulled away the sandbagged down metal diversion sign. By this point the water was well above the curb and presumably starting to flood all the road side shops and houses. By 10:20pm I could see from my flat that the post office was flooded with water reaching about a third of the way up the pillar box outside the entrance. People still trying to make their way down the road on foot had muddy, fast flowing water almost to their waists at this point.
By 11pm the water was well over half way up the pillar box and must have been near a metre deep from the road level. Worryingly it had also reached the bottom of the steps up to my building's car park which was a bit close for comfort.
I finally went to bed around midnight after the strange experience of watching a live BBC news report coming from literally just down the road. I woke around 5am and went to check on things and found the flood waters had receded, leaving muddy residue on the road and pavements outside along with various debris. The canal was significantly fuller than I've seen it before, with the water level only a few inches from the top, but the stretch of it outside my building hadn't flooded thankfully. The power, which had stayed on through the flooding, went out in the morning and proceeded to go on and off until the early afternoon.
Later I was able to see the full extent of the flood damage - all the shops and houses along the lower parts of the Burnley road through Mytholmroyd were flooded. Up the road in Hebden Bridge things were a horrible mess too. Many of the lovely little shops and cafes had been inundated with filthy water. We saw the fire brigade pumping flood water from the basements of some of the buildings and the sad mess of ruined carpets and stock sat out on the pavements as shop owners did their best to scrape the sludge from their floors.
Happily though as soon as Sunday afternoon things were starting to get back to normal. One or two flood hit shops had already reopened and power was properly restored. It's certainly going to be awhile before the worst effected areas recover fully, but hopefully with the support of the local community Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd can get back on their feet.