hilldweller Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Well I celebrated my 65th birthday today and now consider myself to be officially a silly old phart and entitled to black thoughts. I've just ferried some very good friends of many years standing back to their home in Crookes through the torrential rains and floods. It set me thinking about the big changes that are going to be required if Sheffield people are going to continue living in the low lying areas of the city. We went up to Redmires Dam this afternoon in the pouring rain and the "plughole" overflow for the top dam is looking like a water spout with a couple of feet of water over the top of the lip. The noise was incredible. One hundred year weather events seem to be happening every couple of years now. In the US where extreme weather has been the norm for decades the large cities are built with MASSIVE storm relief channels. Empty and blowing with tumbleweed for most of the time but there in time of need. If things continue in the same vein I think big changes are going to be needed in building construction and flood relief schemes. Bored tunnels under the city would be extremely expensive and every bit of land beside rivers has been built on. Could there come a time when insurance on low lying buildings becomes completely prohibitive ? Will property located on hilltops command a premium ? It wouldn't benefit Hilldweller Towers at 900+ feet ASL because another house atop a hill would also cost more. Perhaps global warming is nothing more than a temporary blip but I wouldn't like to bet on it. HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syrup Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Happy Birthday hilldweller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Well I celebrated my 65th birthday today and now consider myself to be officially a silly old phart and entitled to black thoughts. I've just ferried some very good friends of many years standing back to their home in Crookes through the torrential rains and floods. It set me thinking about the big changes that are going to be required if Sheffield people are going to continue living in the low lying areas of the city. We went up to Redmires Dam this afternoon in the pouring rain and the "plughole" overflow for the top dam is looking like a water spout with a couple of feet of water over the top of the lip. The noise was incredible. One hundred year weather events seem to be happening every couple of years now. In the US where extreme weather has been the norm for decades the large cities are built with massive storm relief channels. Empty and blowing with tumbleweed for most of the time but there in time of need. If things continue in the same vein I think big changes are going to be needed in building construction and flood relief schemes. Bored tunnels under the city would be extremely expensive and every bit of land beside rivers has been built on. Could there come a time when insurance on low lying buildings becomes completely prohibitive ? Will property located on hilltops command a premium ? It wouldn't benefit Hilldweller Towers at 900+ feet ASL because another house atop a hill would also cost more. Perhaps global warming is nothing more than a temporary blip but I wouldn't like to bet on it. HD Happy Birthday hilldweller. Hope you are safe from the floods on your high hilltop, but with wind of over 70 mph you have another problem, - remember the Sheffield Gale of 1962 almost 50 years ago? Someone at our school once had a rough night with bad weather and so had to ad-lib his assembly the next morning. The assembly went something like this Last night we had a storm and I live at the top of a hill, in the storm I lost 5 ridge tiles, 45 roof tiles, 6 bricks from my chimney stack and my TV aeriel and some of the rendering off the walls. Last year we had heavy rainfall, my daughter lives at the bottom of a hill and she had over 2 feet of water come in to all her ground floor rooms causing a lot of damage. The moral of this assembly is when you buy your own house, buy one half way up a hill so that you don't get the worst of the winds, or the worst of the floods either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waterside Echo Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Well I celebrated my 65th birthday today and now consider myself to be officially a silly old phart and entitled to black thoughts. . HD Welcome to the club HD and happy birthday. The only problem I find is the fact that most if not all of my old friends have departed this life and that phrase "billy no mates" sadly comes to mind. On the up side though, after spending a lifetime laying under cars and trucks in all weathers I am still able to change the occasional gearbox and clutch, though it takes me at least twice as long as it used to. W/E. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 A Happy Birthday Mr. HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayleaf Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Happy Birthday HD, hope to see you on your rounds again when the weather picks up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vox Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 H.B. to you H.D. (From halfway up the hill) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilldweller Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Hope you are safe from the floods on your high hilltop, but with wind of over 70 mph you have another problem, - remember the Sheffield Gale of 1962 almost 50 years ago? Someone at our school once had a rough night with bad weather and so had to ad-lib his assembly the next morning. The assembly went something like this Last night we had a storm and I live at the top of a hill, in the storm I lost 5 ridge tiles, 45 roof tiles, 6 bricks from my chimney stack and my TV aeriel and some of the rendering off the walls. Last year we had heavy rainfall, my daughter lives at the bottom of a hill and she had over 2 feet of water come in to all her ground floor rooms causing a lot of damage. The moral of this assembly is when you buy your own house, buy one half way up a hill so that you don't get the worst of the winds, or the worst of the floods either. It is possible to keep walking uphill from Hilldweller Towers for another 600 feet above sea level. I reckon that means that we live 9/15ths of the way up the hill. Touching wood, the only damage we have sustained thus far, is the plastic sleeve for the washing drying whirligig which is now in tatters. We used to have far more wind damage when we lived overlooking Rivelin at Crookes. On the day we moved in there, the removal men came out of the van carrying a china cabinet between them. The wind caught it and they finished up 50 yards along the pavement, the cabinet still intact. If there had been an olympic event for the 50 yard glass cabinet dash they'd have got a gold medal. The new houses across the street were built with very thick ,heavy concrete roof tiles, according to the builder it was only necessary to nail every fifth row. After every storm the road would be littered with broken tiles. Our roof had the small clay tiles and we never lost a one. Thank you all for your kind wishes. I look forward to coming across Bayleaf on one of my electric jaunts but I may leave it for a week or two yet. HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 One of sisters lived for many years at 257 Greystones Road in a house pictured on here before (she no longer lives there), so pretty much near the top of a very big hill - 2007 she was flooded ! This as a result of the wind blowing the rain so hard against the external wall that rain was running along the main supporting beam. Certainly not a new house either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilldweller Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 One of sisters lived for many years at 257 Greystones Road in a house pictured on here before (she no longer lives there), so pretty much near the top of a very big hill - 2007 she was flooded ! This as a result of the wind blowing the rain so hard against the external wall that rain was running along the main supporting beam. Certainly not a new house either. Nobody is immune from flooding. A few tens of metres from me is a large expanse of open ground, a sports field adjacent to a small park on an upward slope. If we had a flash flood that water would come past us on it's way downhill. At least it would keep on going until it got to the River Rivelin. But if the flow was deep enough it might still cause damage. HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilldweller Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Just been up for another look at the plug-hole at Redmires top dam. Water over the sill nothing like it was yesterday afternoon. Hopefully I have attached a snap. The Urb-Ex herberts recently abseiled down this to explore the tunnel, I bet they wouldn't have tried it last night. HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Weather forecast tonight on "Look Leeds" had Paul Hudson talking about the very strong winds we have had in the previous 24 hours. He mentioned South Yorkshire simply because the Penistone / Loxley area just northwest of Sheffield had suffered the strongest gusts of wind, up to 93mph He also explained that this was an exceptionally strong Lea-wave wind whcich happens roughly once every 50 years or so. Interesting then that we are just coming up to the 50th anniversary of the 16th February 1962 Sheffield Gale Paul also indicated that the Lea wave path was quite narrow and its powerful downdrought onto the ground hit a fairly rural area. Had it been a few miles further south it would have hit Sheffield just as it did 50 years ago and would have done a similar amount of damage (taking into account that there are fewer, more volnerable prefabricated buildings around now) In Paul's final words on the show "Sheffield had a very lucky escape last night" Quite worrying and frightening, especially for someone like me who survived the 1962 event and still has vivid memories of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now