On 17 Jul 2015 at 9:48am Cover up? wrote:
I was on the Phoenix causeway with about 20 other people just before the town flooded in 2000 and a policeman came on to the bridge and said you need to get off the bridge they have opened the flood gates.
We moved to the side and within a few minutes there was a surge down the river which caused the flooding in Cliffe
Does anyone else remember that?
On 17 Jul 2015 at 10:04am Odd wrote:
So you moved off the higher level of the bridge to the lower level at the side to avoid flooding ? How bizarre of the police.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 10:25am Cover up? wrote:
I imagine they thought the bridge was going to get swamped and didn't want us to get washed away.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 11:03am Sjep76 wrote:
My Uncle farms upstream between Hamsey and Barcombe and he saw a 3 foot wave going down the river that he thought was most bizarre and then realised what it was when he watched the news that evening.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 1:20pm Curious wrote:
Where are these flood gates situated that could hold back that much flood water situated? I've never seen them. In October 2000 the whole area downstream of Barcombe was pretty much underwater.
Did they open the flood gates in 1960 when the area of Malling Brooks also flooded. The Victorians left the Brooks alone (south of Spences Lane)as they knew that area flooded - as the name implies.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 1:39pm Oldbutintouch wrote:
I was told at the time that on the morning after the flood, when the Cliffe shopkeepers were allowed back to check their property, one of the first official visitors was Lindsay Frost, head of LDC planning and second in command of the council. He told each trader "there is no truth in the rumour that the flood control had been mismanaged upstream from Lewes". Until his arrival, this theory had not occurred to the Cliffe traders. Why was he sent? Something wrong had obviously happened, and he had been sent out on damage control. I suppose if it was proved that the Lewes flood was exacerbated by mismanagement, the insurers would want their money back!
On 17 Jul 2015 at 1:54pm Night paddler wrote:
There's only Barcombe Mills and The Anchor Sluice. The river always floods around the Anchor Sluice and doesn't really care if it's open or not. Barcombe Mills has a storm overflow so once the river gets to a certain level the water comes through whether the weir gate is open or not (albeit using a slightly a more circuitous route).
On 17 Jul 2015 at 2:53pm Upstream Midnight paddle wrote:
And up beyond Uckfield there is a weir in Buxted Park and acres of land that could be allowed to flood more than it does IF the water babies got their act together
On 17 Jul 2015 at 2:54pm Salmon wrote:
Even if the water was over the flood gates at the time opening them would suddenly increase the flow
On 17 Jul 2015 at 3:09pm Horseman7 wrote:
My daughter and I were 2 of the other 20 people Cover Up. We'd just come from Morrisons, where we'd bought 6 chickens for the price of one as the flood waters lapped around the store entrance. I still feel guilty for profiteering from such misfortune all these years later.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 4:56pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
A friend works for the Environment Agency and she said that it would have made no difference either way. She said that the water levels around Barcombe were so high, the sluice gates would have made as difference to the flood as hanging your living room radiator in the river.
The thing that I feel has never been properly explored is the effect of covering the water meadows at Malling Brooks in concrete to build an industrial estate and a supermarket. Imo, that may have made the flooding of Orchard Road/Spences Lane more severe than it would otherwise have been.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 6:11pm bastian wrote:
I remember it well. The flood gates at Barcombe would have made a difference being opened even though, as we all know the water regularly goes over the top of the gates, to open them would allow water diversion onto the land below the gates-Lewes. Uckfield ha dit first, and water then came in from the Mole, that feeds into the Uck.
I remember it pouring in form the Cockshut, such a small and insignificant river until flood-it cascaded through the gates of the school into the running track.
Horsman it was still Safeway then, but yes, it did flood and I had myself just left the building having bought a load of batteries, because my dad worked in flooding and I could see the river was about to tip.
It would indeed be stupid to build on that flood plane now!
On 17 Jul 2015 at 7:35pm Clifford wrote:
'It would indeed be stupid to build on that flood plane now!'
As if that worries developers. The profits will have been banked. But LDC and SDNP should be concerned.
On 17 Jul 2015 at 9:19pm Cliffe wrote:
Russians! It was the bloody Russians! KGB gits strike again.
On 18 Jul 2015 at 10:11am canoeman wrote:
The flood plain for the Ouse is massive. The part in Lewes is a very small part of it. My observation from canoeing the Ouse in states of flood is that fields seem to be allowed to flood in sequence from barcombe down and you can set the level at which a field floods quite easily. Presumably the same happens on the flood plain south of Lewes. I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to protect the flood plain in the heart of Lewes with either dams or buildings with car parks on the ground floor.
Incidentally Bastian, the river mole flows into the Thames at Hampton court.
On 18 Jul 2015 at 6:46pm bastian wrote:
and a tributary form the Mole runs inot the Uck
On 18 Jul 2015 at 9:56pm canoeman wrote:
The mole rises south of Gatwick airport and goes under the runway. The uck near buxted. I have doubts about what you are saying. What is the name of the tributary? As the mole essentially flows north and the uck south, how does it cross the water table?
On 18 Jul 2015 at 10:10pm Zen wrote:
How can a tributary of one river flow into another? Look up the definition of tributary!
On 19 Jul 2015 at 6:02am Oldbutintouch wrote:
to add more water to my conspiracy theory - I was told by a Fireman that the waters in Uckfield vanished very quickly. Did someone in authority panic and pull some kind of river management plug?
On 19 Jul 2015 at 8:45am bastian wrote:
The thing about flooding is that where ever the water starts from is irrelevent in that we can't just pin point water courses on a map beacsue many go underground and reappear or have been culverted because of flooding,and in a flood situation water just pours to the lowest point, tributies become raging rivers. Lat year I got caught out by the Mole bursting its banks, it is easy to see how one body of water imediately affects another that is miles away on a map.
On 19 Jul 2015 at 8:52am canoeman wrote:
There is a weir on the uck just before it meets the Ouse and 2 weirs on the Ouse at the anchor and hamsey. I hate to ruin a good conspiracy theory but none of them seem to me to be big enough to hold back enough water and then be lowered to cause a sudden flood. They soon get swamped when there is any flooding.
On 19 Jul 2015 at 1:54pm bastian wrote:
Then you don't undrstand how it works, they do hold bakc alot of water, or let's say, they slow it down, once opened, they let a deluge down in one go, hence a wave.
We saw it come through the woods on the railway land path, we were standing on the path near the railway bridge and it just suddenly poured towards us.
Canoe man, were you heer in October 2000?
On 19 Jul 2015 at 11:21pm Belladonna wrote:
That's a bloody long tributary Bastian !
I heard the flooding in the Cliffe was also down to the drains bursting. The ground literally could not hold any more water and it was rising up through floors and pavenents.
On 20 Jul 2015 at 9:06am canoeman wrote:
I do not see how any of the weirs could hold back sufficient water on that day. As you were down river of Lewes when you saw the wave Bastian, maybe it was an underground culvert from the river mole bursting. I was on phoenix causeway watching the car park by Safeway overflow with the oncoming rising tide. Good to know you are checking Bastian as we don't want any geographically illiterate dfl coming on here.
On 20 Jul 2015 at 9:24am mudblood wrote:
please omit pointless "dfl" nonsense, canoeman
On 28 Jul 2015 at 8:12pm Old Cynic wrote:
I remember it well, water not only came from the river but up through dormant springs an down from the downs - flood gates wouldn't have made any difference
On 28 Jul 2015 at 8:12pm Old Cynic wrote:
I remember it well, water not only came from the river but up through dormant springs an down from the downs - flood gates wouldn't have made any difference
On 28 Jul 2015 at 8:12pm Old Cynic wrote:
I remember it well, water not only came from the river but up through dormant springs an down from the downs - flood gates wouldn't have made any difference