Trapped on the M5!!

[Rhythm Thief]

Phew. I set off from Yorkshire last night heading for Monmouth. I hadn't heard anything about the flooding and my first inkling that something was wrong came when I hit traffic on the M42 near Birmingham. After two hours of not moving far I decided to chance it off the motorway, only to discover that lots of A roads were shut too. When I finally got back on the motorway I read on the overhead signs that the M50 is closed and there are loooong delays on the M5. I arrived at the back of a queue at M5 Junction 6 around 11 o'clock last night and didn't move until around 7 this morning! And even then I never made it home - I came back on the northbound side and went to bed in my lorry in our yard in Wednesbury. I'm just about to make another run for home ... wish me luck!

 

[graham56]

Some poor souls stuck for 15 hrs on the M5, without food or water ,well plenty of water but little to drink.

 

[gbyers]

Highways agency saying M5 should be clear by Saturday afternoon.

Hope they're right for your sake.

Do you use 2222 on the mobile, it can be hepful.

Good luck.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

not good...

...this wevver is bloody unbelievable ain't it?

 

[Keith Oates]

that is one heck of a delay, hope there weren't any injuries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mickle]

Blimmin heck, a bit of weather and it all goes to sh!t!
Took me three and a half hours to drive from Sutton to Willesden yesterday afternoon, a fifty minute drive according to the sat nav. There were swearing words.

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Took my son 12 hours to drive from Somerset to South Warwickshire yesterday, normal journey time c2.5 hours. Imagine if we were ever hit by some "proper" serious weather in this country

 

[jonesy]

Took my son 12 hours to drive from Somerset to South Warwickshire yesterday, normal journey time c2.5 hours. Imagine if we were ever hit by some "proper" serious weather in this country

Er, we had ~ 4 inches of rain in a single day! Do you really expect everything to cope normally with that?

 

[Lardyboy]

Did a 15 mile ride into work today, wet? Saw a bloke with a long beard and swathes of cloth around him with two dogs. If I didn't know better.........?????

 

[laurence]

Blimmin heck, a bit of weather and it all goes to sh!t!
Took me three and a half hours to drive from Sutton to Willesden yesterday afternoon, a fifty minute drive according to the sat nav. There were swearing words.

that's never a 50 minute drive even in good weather!

new malden high street was still flooded at 7 last night. i read that drivers had to swim to safety in cheam!

L

 

[andrew_s]

It always strikes me that a very high proportion of the transport problems caused by severe weather are caused by the sheer numbers of people who think that "Don't travel unless absolutely necessary" doesn't apply to them (or that it's absolutely necessary to stick to their original plans).
It doesn't help any more that a lot of them don't seem to be able to adjust their manner of driving to the conditions either.

Perhaps it might help if insurance companies started making 50% contributory negligence adjustments to claims for things like seized engines on cars driven into floods at inappropriate speeds?

 

[LLB]

It always strikes me that a very high proportion of the transport problems caused by severe weather are caused by the sheer numbers of people who think that "Don't travel unless absolutely necessary" doesn't apply to them (or that it's absolutely necessary to stick to their original plans).
It doesn't help any more that a lot of them don't seem to be able to adjust their manner of driving to the conditions either.

Perhaps it might help if insurance companies started making 50% contributory negligence adjustments to claims for things like seized engines on cars driven into floods at inappropriate speeds?

I saw cars trapped by flood water which landlocked them and then overwhelmed the parked cars. peugeots are the worst because the air intakes are about 8" off the ground.

Some of the flooding around this way was 6ft deep on the roads. I think it is unfair to say that all was caused by people being reckless, most people were just trying to get home when the water rose. Were you so scornful when the Tsunami hit a couple of years ago, or when people are victim of earthquakes ?

 

[Pete]

I like to think (and also like to think there are others with the same ideas) that when I use the car it's always because it's 'necessary'.

Such a case happened yesterday as we were were about to set forth on our customary cycle-shopping. The heavens opened. My wife stomped back into the house: "I'm not setting out in that!" We took the car - a rare occasion for us. Thus it was an 'essential' journey on that occasion. Thankfully we're not in the worst affected area: it's just rain at the moment, not floods (though on Friday it was different, the town was cut off and one of my colleagues had his car stall in a flood and he had to abandon it).

Don't make the mistake of thinking this a wholly new phenomenon, something of the 21st century age we live in. One of the worst cases of flooding I can remember, was in September 1968 when large parts of Surrey and Kent were inundated. I, as a teenager, was in the thick of it, in Redhill. The town was cut in half. Our house was not affected, but people we knew were flooded out. My father was trying anxiously to get to the local hospital to visit his brother who had just had a heart attack. He didn't make it (he got through the next day). I have some 8mm film footage of the flooding, but I don't know how to upload it...

 

[Arch]

I saw cars trapped by flood water which landlocked them and then overwhelmed the parked cars. peugeots are the worst because the air intakes are about 8" off the ground.

Some of the flooding around this way was 6ft deep on the roads. I think it is unfair to say that all was caused by people being reckless, most people were just trying to get home when the water rose. Were you so scornful when the Tsunami hit a couple of years ago, or when people are victim of earthquakes ?

Well, if Andrew is in Gloucester, he may be finding out today how fast water can rise around you...

Don't see what people on the motorways could do, if they are already on the road and have no idea what's ahead. My sister's other half took ages to get home to Winchester from Reading on Friday because a single dip in the A34 had filled up, and the other main route had a landslide across it - he had no idea when he set out...

Was going to ask if forummers were alright? Actually Linf, you were the only Cotswoldian I could think of, off hand...

Sister heard a lady on the local news saying in cut-glass Hampshire tones "Well, you see this sort of thing in the North, but you don't expect it here..." Classic. Because Southern rivers are just so much better behaved, aren't they....

 

[LLB]

My inlaws in another part of cheltenham have been flooded out, and their bungalow is now uninhabitable - they have now moved in with us for the foreseeable future.

My kids living in at a riding school near Broadway with 120 horses, and the water went off yesterday @3pm - they have containers to last until tomorrow, but if it doesn't come on again by Wednesday, the animals are going to get very sick

I went to Tewkesbury yesterday as well as Evesham, and its just dire there. There was a tractor under water where the police had asked its driver to move some cars, and the water was over the top of the tractors bonnet (maybe 6ft). I understand that a couple living in a mobile home in Evesham died when it was swept away also

The water is still on here ATM, but for how long is anyones guess !