Comments on: Wellies, waterproofs and sandbags: York floods, part 3

By: audreyr

audreyr — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:01:17 +0000

I was born in York in 1928 and the river has I think without fail flooded some part of York each year.
There has been talk about using areas as flood plains but I think the sheer volume of water would probably render that a waste of time.
Perhaps in the future there might some way of diverting water well above York, a new Lake district!!!
it will ever be a problem and it will take someone very inventive to come up with a possible solution.
there should certainly be no more building on the areas that flood each year.
skeldergate and North St have always been problems.
Perhaps in the future there might be some solution in the areas above York where the rivers begin.
or canals feeding water off to
man made lakes.
Im sure that some remedial action will be found to ease the flooding.
Meantime long suffering residents of the areas that flood most years will just have to go through their annual misery and I would imagine find their houses unsaleable.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:56:18 +0000

It is really grim for those directly affected, and of course many of those are outside of York in places down river. Heard a woman from Acaster Selby on BBC Radio York yesterday sounding very distressed at the flood situation there - she had livestock to manage as well as flood damage to her house which had meant her children had to go to stay with relatives. Sounds awful for her and others affected.

Is interesting to see though, particularly on Twitter, how @VisitYork and others are struggling to get across the message that most of York is unaffected. Places like the Merchant Adventurers Hall are getting a lot of enquiries from people who seem to think most of York is underwater. Whereas of course flooding is localised and most of York is as normal. Hope the problem can be put into perspective.

By: mallory

mallory — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:25:52 +0000

really nice photos! and nice change to read a non-sensationalist viewpoint on ‘the great flood 2012′ ;-)

Without wishing to be unsympathetic to anyone having to deal with flood damage and the like, York has been flooding since the Romans were here, in fact the Roman bridge was swept away in 630ish [ that’s 630AD, not just after The 6 O’Clock News ;-) ] in a, by the sketchy accounts that have survived, catastrophic flood..

I like it when it floods, it’s part of York’s heritage, paddling through muddy water or slipping along on the mud left behind are essential Yorkie skills…

By: stephen

stephen — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 01:35:40 +0000

Sorry to see the ambitious Ouse and it’s rising damp,causing such problems for York’s citizens
and the aftermath must be very hard/costly to
cope with.