"Martin" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 16:14:18 -0000, "Bob Hobden" wrote:

"Sacha" wrote

Hope all those urglers in or near the area of the flooding are okay and
NOT
flooded!


We keep hearing how sandbags are being delivered, well we got a delivery
of
sand to a local church by "The Sun" newspaper, saving the day as they will
say, and it was a free-for-all getting some to make your own bags with
no-one in charge. Useful only if you had anything to put it in, most seem
to
be using their wheelie bins to collect it but what do they put it in when
they get it home. Carrier bags have holes.
A friend from across the road evacuated her disabled Dad down to Yeovil,
Somerset last night (another daughter) and is about to be on her way back
with lots of waders and sheet plastic.
It hasn't reached any further up our road since yesterday although it's
now
coming up out of the ground in some back gardens opposite. Our biggest
fear
is that it floods over the A30 at Egham from Runnymede meadow (now lake),
if
that happens the whole of Egham will be gone with no way of road escape
from
this whole area except through Staines which has water fountaining out of
the drains along the London Road, one of only two roads out of the town
still open.
I can actually smell the sewage in the water now when I walk down the road
every couple of hours to see how far it's got!
If anyone mentions drought later this year they will rightly be lynched!

If you do use sandbags put them on a plastic membrane with the rest of the
plastic on the side facing the flood. On TV I've seen some being done like
this,
but most aren't. You can use black PVC sheeting.

I shall be using pond liner and sealing it against the house with silicon
sealer, I'll worry about getting that stuff off the house and woodwork
later. So far it's not advancing up our road but with this storm over the
coming weekend due to dump a months rain, the Thames will rise more next
week which may be when we go under. As you say, some precautions I've seen
are worse than useless, some with just sandbags and others with gaps around
the edge or the plastic the wrong side of the sandbags or just loose and not
against boards for strength and some have forgotten their air bricks. I
think genuine panic has caused some non-thinking and there has been no sign
of anyone advising the residents except one policeman saying we were next to
go under. Some sand bags and a knowledgeable official adviser with a few
army helpers would be nice!
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK