Weather

Blimey, have you been on the sauce? Yes, bad weather, but even though it's the worst we've had in a long time, 3 dead nationwide is nothing considering how dangerous the roads have been, being at Glastonbury was more of a risk, one died out of a hundred thousand.

As for tornados, as much as risk here as tidal waves and earthquakes.. IIRC the biggest in Britain was many years ago and seemed confined to Patrick Moore's garden. You're more at risk from standard winds and trees falling down, they do kill people in Britain. Even fog is more dangerous.

On or around Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:08:06 +0100, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

I hope Martyn isn't under water...

and speaking of Martyn, and hence thinking of military motors to make campers of...

in Witham's latest sale-by-tender.

or sir requires something with a bit more presence...

and these should come in handy if it rains more:

also a bunch of LT77 gearboxes.

We're downstream of the rivers Don and Torne and the canals (dunno name of) and are waiting for the dam to burst ... The water is 1" off the top of our kitchen step, but hasn't got into the house yet. Both rivers have gone over the top in the fields near us, but aren't in full flood in our area and thankfully it's now quite sunny, sporadically, and looking dry. (For various values of dry)

Just been down to 'the river' ... towed out two cars that were water-logged ... they're my good deeds for the day ... ;)

I dunno, it'd cost a fair bit, though I guess it's almost an insuramce policy. We rely on reasonable precautions. I'm a caretaker of two (Infants and Junior) schools on the same school field, and whilst the field is water-logged, the playgrounds and schools themselves are dry. We had the foresight/hindsight to jet-out our drains a few weeks ago when there was a 'small' downpour and we got substantially wetter then simply because the playgrounds couldn't shed water via the drainage system. They barely coped this time, but the water levels didn't raise as quickly or stay as long.

Supposed to be off to Redcar tomorrow ... dunno if I'll bother now though. ;)

I was at a military show recently where someone had bought a green goddess, and one of those was with it, after a bit of faffing about, suddenly the water hose started to get fat and push against people's legs, then the chap with the hose started shouting for help as it got hard to handle. Once two of them were on it, they opened it up and it started drilling holes in the river bank opposite. I don't think they were expecting it to start quite so quickly so when it did, it got a bit scary! They're the real thing, not for one person to operate when there's a pressure nozzle on the end.

Very very very odd to get it operational though, once the engine was started, you run it for a bit to prime the pump, then chuck some lever and suddenly the engine goes almost totally quiet while the exhaust appears to be used to power something, then water shoots out the exhaust! After a while the hose fires up and starts cutting the ground up and the exhaust goes back to normal. No idea what was going on with the exhaust as I was several feet away watching them figuring out how to work it but when the exhaust started gushing water, some of them were shouting "shut it off" while others were saying "it's fine", and fine it was. Very odd, especially when the engine went silent despite revving hard.

Paul - xxx uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Having watched the News they are busy flooding areas by pumping out the reserviour... they have evacuated the town below but it seems theres an awful lot of cars now written off where keepers have apparently left them behind. I know that theres only so much you can do and it's (hopefully!) an alternative to the bank breaching but what a waste.

Good man! I did wonder if any of our readers would be active :-)

I'd think theres a few in Brum that may disagree - a relatively treeless area.

No trees on my estate and the fog is unlikely to kill me or my family in our home... though I did see a scary movie once...

Im ready. Got shackles and rope etc. bet it dont flood down here though.

I'm ready, i bought a dinghy.

When driving I meant! We get a lot of fog around here (south west), more get lost on the roads in the fog than get sucked up by tornados or drowned in the water. Not sure how hiding in a hole in the ground will help with floods either ;-)

After some recent winds, the local councils conducted all-out warfare against trees lining roads as they were coming down and squishing people, not sure if they've done that up your way or not but I'd heard that it had been going on all over the country.

Anyhow, if worried about tornados, simply buy some red sparkly shoes and carry them with you at all times. If you find yourself in an area populated by strange munchkins and wicked witches, don the shoes and click the heels together.

Snowploughs for landies too (or that's what it looks like);

Nige uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Been on my wish list for a while -- well a Canoe anyway... Camera beat it to the budget this time though :-) At least I'll have some good photos as I wade across the street LOL.

Ropes and shackles at the ready here too. I've also got two pumps in the garage though I've never used them and a muther of a pump at Pa's which is rather old but has around a 4 inch intake. I doubt I'll be needing them to be honest. I just have a pump fetish :-)

Staffs area generally floods around Burton on Trent which is a fair way off us.

Lee

Ian Rawlings uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Yes the clue is in the description.... my guess is it's hydraulic and about

6ft LOL!

We've got strops, rope and shackles with us always nowadays ... The only time I didn't put them in was the only time I could have saved someone's life if I'd had them :(

Best thing we carry, IMHO, though is the Hi-lift jack ... Well, it would be 'cept someone broke it for me a couple of weeks ago :(

Supposed to be getting a brand-new one delivered tomorrow from Paddocks .. mate who broke my 20-odd year old Farm-Jack paid for a nice shiny new one with a spares kit, tubular jacking adaptor and little plastic thingy to stop it rattling ... which I consider a fair swap ;)

All I really need now is a winch chain, winching rope and a swing-away block .. and a ground anchor and a ..... ;)

Yeah yeah smart arse, that's why I said it looks like a land-rover snow plough, being a more cautious sort than yourself (other than where tornados are concerned!) I thought I'd qualify it as I don't see it fixed to a land rover..

Besides, by "land rover type" they might have meant that it's made of soft aluminium and leaks oil a lot!

I got out a bit last night, around Gainsborough. Couldn't help one poor old dear though -her Ford Fusion had an electric *handbrake*! Faffed about trying to get it off for five mins then just gave her a lift to the dry stuff and went back for more. About half of them offered me various bits of money they had with them, but I dont think they realised how much fun I was having :o)

I often go for a look, but never find anyone in distress.. :(

The new passats at work have an electric handbrake... You have to press the footbrake before they will turn off...

It is fun to drag sommat out of the water!

I drove up Glastonbury way in the pinz to see if any nubile student girls needed rescuing, but the roads were dry, the closest to flooding I found was one of the small lanes to my village, some people waved me back before I got to it (I was in the Audi A4 at the time), but it was only about a foot deep, just drove slowly through it.

Automatics would probably be stuffed re failed electrics too, as they have the gate lock on the gear selector so drivers wouldn't be able to get them out of "park". I've not tried it yet (the A4 is an auto) but I don't think there's a way to get out of park. Ain't technology wonderful eh.

Blimey - more electronics doomed to fail.

Whilst I'm unlikely to get my feet wet up here just yet just for anyone reading who does in the near future, just a word to the wise - not an egg sucking one but intended as helpful - bear in mind the drag of the object you are pulling theres going to be lots so take it nice and easy and all should be well. It's most likely the first thing to go twang will be the pannel on the car thats being recovered if the towing eye is used.

Not intended at anyone here - just of benifit for those lurking.

Lee

D'ya know, I'm seriously considering having a run out Sheffield way this evening! I mean, me wellies didn't get breached, so its gotta be worth another go :o)