Cost of storm damage

[Ludwig]

The cost of the recent storm damage in the UK has benn estimated at £400 million but is could easily be £2 billion or more. How is the money going to be found in light of the swinging cuts where libraries and leisure centres are having to be closed to reduce costs?

 

[screenman]

Insurance companies will e paying some I would imagine.

 

[swee'pea99]

And the tragic thing is, a large proportion of it is totally preventable...

The story begins with a group of visionary farmers at Pontbren, in the headwaters of Britain’s longest river, the Severn. In the 1990s they realised that the usual hill farming strategy – loading the land with more and bigger sheep, grubbing up the trees and hedges, digging more drains – wasn’t working. It made no economic sense, the animals had nowhere to shelter, the farmers were breaking their backs to wreck their own land.

So they began planting shelter belts of trees along the contours. They stopped draining the wettest ground and built ponds to catch the water instead....

....One day a government consultant was walking over their fields during a rainstorm. He noticed something that fascinated him: the water flashing off the land suddenly disappeared when it reached the belts of trees the farmers had planted. ...a major research programme [revealed] water sinks into the soil under the trees at 67 times the rate at which it sinks into the soil under the grass(4). The roots of the trees provide channels down which the water flows, deep into the ground. The soil there becomes a sponge, a reservoir which sucks up water then releases it slowly. In the pastures, by contrast, the small sharp hooves of the sheep puddle the ground, making it almost impermeable: a hard pan off which the rain gushes.

One of the research papers estimates that, even though only 5% of the Pontbren land has been reforested, if all the farmers in the catchment did the same thing, flooding peaks downstream would be reduced by some 29%(5). Full reforestation would reduce the peaks by around 50%(6). For the residents of Shrewsbury, Gloucester and the other towns ravaged by endless Severn floods, that means, more or less, problem solved.

...For decades the British government has been funding scientists working in the tropics, and using their findings to advise other countries to protect the forests or to replant trees in the hills, to prevent communities downstream from being swept away. But we forgot to bring the lesson home.

...there is an unbreakable rule laid down by the Common Agricultural Policy. If you want to receive your single farm payment – by far the biggest component of farm subsidies – that land has to be free from what it calls “unwanted vegetation”(10). Land covered by trees is not eligible. The subsidy rules have enforced the mass clearance of vegetation from the hills.

For the full story: http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/13/drowning-in-money/

 

[asterix]

did a post on this. It appeared 3 times so I deleted 2 and now it has vanished totally! The ghost in the machine strikes!!

 

[ufkacbln]

did a post on this. It appeared 3 times so I deleted 2 and now it has vanished totally! The ghost in the machine strikes!!

Is posting 3 times in rapid succession flooding the forum

 

[ufkacbln]

I was in St Ives in Cambridgeshire at the weekend, and the great expanses of meadows between St Ives and the Hemingfords are once again deep in water, as they have been every year for as long as I can remember

Somewhere for the water to go as opposed to being channeled ?

 

[MisterStan]

I was in St Ives in Cambridgeshire at the weekend, and the great expanses of meadows between St Ives and the Hemingfords are once again deep in water, as they have been every year for as long as I can remember

Somewhere for the water to go as opposed to being channeled ?

That would be our flood plains doing their job!

 

[Arch]

Insurance companies will e paying some I would imagine.

When it was happening, I saw David Cameron on TV, (having been harangued by a householder), saying the councils should be out there providing skips. etc.

I remarked to NT, that wasn't it the householders who should be getting the skips, and claiming back off their insurance? He agreed. People seem to think that councils have hundreds of skips just sitting around waiting for this sort of thing. They don't. They'd have to hire the skips from skip hire companies, adding a layer of admin and cost to the whole thing...

What might be needed, is some legal teeth to prevent skip hire companies from whacking prices up whenever anything happens...

 

[screenman]

When it was happening, I saw David Cameron on TV, (having been harangued by a householder), saying the councils should be out there providing skips. etc.

I remarked to NT, that wasn't it the householders who should be getting the skips, and claiming back off their insurance? He agreed. People seem to think that councils have hundreds of skips just sitting around waiting for this sort of thing. They don't. They'd have to hire the skips from skip hire companies, adding a layer of admin and cost to the whole thing...

What might be needed, is some legal teeth to prevent skip hire companies from whacking prices up whenever anything happens...

Having had a rubbish clearance business, I can speak from first hand experience rather than just guessing and say that, what needs doing is the price these small business owners need to pay to stay in business needs lowering.

Do you know how much it costs per ton or cubic yard to empty a skip, any idea the cost of keeping a lorry on the road, fuel, VED, maintenance, drivers wages, insurance, depreciation, bank charges, adverting, accountants fee's, yard rental, office equipment and the list goes on.

Why do most people think the price they pay for something is all profit to the person taking the money, rage over.

 

[srw]

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/flooding-a-natural-disaster.147392/
As I've already posted in that thread, there has been no big storm. There's been a series of little ones, well within normal expectations for the time of year. And @screenman is right - the insurance companies will pay for most of the damage, because most people and most businesses are insured.

 

[screenman]

[QUOTE 2884779, member: 9609"]So does a big storm causing lots of damage boost the economy, it certainly gets money flowing.[/quote]
Not got a clue as I am not an economist.

 

[Arch]

Having had a rubbish clearance business, I can speak from first hand experience rather than just guessing and say that, what needs doing is the price these small business owners need to pay to stay in business needs lowering.

Do you know how much it costs per ton or cubic yard to empty a skip, any idea the cost of keeping a lorry on the road, fuel, VED, maintenance, drivers wages, insurance, depreciation, bank charges, adverting, accountants fee's, yard rental, office equipment and the list goes on.

Why do most people think the price they pay for something is all profit to the person taking the money, rage over.

I didn't mean that skip hire company prices are a rip off. Just that in times of demand, some of the more unscrupulous ones might take advantage of demand....

Clearly you think I know nothing about real world costs, get off your high horse. I think I deal with skips more than you on a daily basis! Ok, I just fill 'em, but I'm not completely ignorant, thanks. I also know some people will do anything for a fast buck, and if they think 'the insurance' are paying for it, they may be tempted to push prices up for that reason too.

 

[screenman]

I didn't mean that skip hire company prices are a rip off. Just that in times of demand, some of the more unscrupulous ones might take advantage of demand....

Clearly you think I know nothing about real world costs, get off your high horse. I think I deal with skips more than you on a daily basis! Ok, I just fill 'em, but I'm not completely ignorant, thanks. I also know some people will do anything for a fast buck, and if they think 'the insurance' are paying for it, they may be tempted to push prices up for that reason too.

How much does it cost to empty a skip in London nowadays? Why should people not make a fast buck, profit is not a swear word. It might be the only time they make some. You cannot tell me that you run a proper business supporting lots of business overheads, employing staff etc. yet not take the opportunity to put a little icing on the cake once in a while. Yes I do think you might not know a lot about real world costs in the skip or rubbish business, unless of course if you have owned one, have you?