Torrential rain floods homes
Monday 1st March 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
Doreen Calvert of Tesson Mews puts up boarding in her doorway to keep the muddy water out Picture: TONY PIKE (00901716)
A MAJOR clean-up operation was under way today after Jersey was battered by a vicious storm which killed at least 55 people across Western Europe.
Dozens of homes were flooded, trees were felled and banks collapsed as torrential rain and strong winds swept up from the south on Saturday night.
Firefighters were called out 25 times in 12 hours as some homes and businesses were flooded by up to two feet of water. Pockets of flooding were reported across the Island but the worst affected areas were Grands Vaux, Vallée des Vaux and Sandybrook.
Many flats and houses as well as Tesson Mill in St Peter were badly flooded during the morning and Safeway supermarket also suffered major flooding as water poured down saturated hills.
Jersey Met Office said that it was the wettest February day ever recorded in the Island.
• Full report and more pictures in today’s Jersey Evening Post
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It is never a good idea to build properties in a valley.
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i was out on my hen night, am glad i went home when i did! Was horrible night to be out!
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I would say the island had a very lucky escape.
Long term we are playing with fire, heavy rainfall seems to be becoming more prevalent and we are building on more open land and tarmacing or decking over gardens to provide off road parking or patio areas so there are less areas to absorb the water.
One of these days we will get hit by a really heavy storm like France received over the weekend and then we will see flooding on an epic scale.
But there is no telling Planning and Destruction Of The Environment!
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How awful.
Some freaky weather all around the world lately.
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I remember what my Granddad said to me, about 50 years ago.
Quote:
Those buggers will be sorry that they build all over the place, unquote:
I see he was right.
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Oh god, no!
I thought that we had got through the worst of the recession, but here we are with the JEP reporting that due to some heavy rain the banks have collapsed!
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I am afraid I dont quite follow #3′s comments. As an island, most excess water runs into the sea, with just localised flooding. It appears that it is large land masses with rivers bursting their banks which are prone to mass flooding.
I have yet to hear of anyone being killed in Jersey through freak weather.
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Old crapaud (comment 5) Your grandfather was a wise man!
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no. 8 JULIE
Posted March 3, 2010 at 6:46 am Old crapaud (comment 5) Your grandfather was a wise man!
Yes he was, and no one would take notice then, as no one takes notice now to what is happening to OUR Beautiful Island.
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The storm in 1987 caused a lot of damage and the island was lucky that there were no fatalities.
If very high rainfall, say two inches in a couple of hours which has occurred in the UK, coincided with a spring tide and the fields being covered with plastic to protect the potatoes then I would expect a lot of flooding around Sandybrook, First Tower, St Clements.
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Perhaps JNWWCo can measure how much rainwater is wasted and charge the Jersey public for it?
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Get used to it folks this is the way of the future unfortuantely. Things are a changing. **** with nature at your peril!
Indeed I agree it is not wise to build in valleys or areas suseptable to flooding like marshes! So why does this go on all over the world?
This is why I would never buy a place that was low lying in Jersey, too much of a risk IMHO.
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