So, the Great Storm Of 2013 is officially over and all anyone can talk about is the wind (which completely bypassed my area). What they’ve failed to acknowledge is the rain.
When I woke up this morning, I was treated to the delightful sight of the ground floor of my house underwater, because a neighbour of mine thought it would be a good idea to put a cap in the ditch that drains excess water away from our house.
Because I live in an old house, the ground floor comprises mostly of flagstones suspended over earth. This means that if water is to spill out of the ditch next to the house, it flows straight underneath. And if the water levels get too high, that results in water seeping up through the floor.
In other news, I discovered that my left welly has a hole in it.
Possessed Cat 
Love the title of this post – lol
Due to being broke, the flood insurance agency in the USA, FEMA, is hiking the rates of those homes in the highest risk areas. As my home happens to be one of them, I see their point. I get it. It’s an unsustainable model to have more payments going out than premiums coming in. What can be done? Home elevation – above the base flood level.
Have you seen any of this in England? For pictures of what I”m talking about check out my website at FloodSavvy.com. Once I move back into my house I can hardly wait for the next flood event – party time!
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I’ve heard of it – it’s not something that would be seen very much around here because even though we’re in a flood-prone area, planning permission wouldn’t allow you to build anything that was too different from the surrounding houses. Your house looks like it’s going to be amazing, though!
Although my house floods, it wouldn’t if the ditches surrounding it were left alone. They’ve been there for as long as the house has, and as long as they’re properly maintained, they do exactly the job they were supposed to, which is to direct runoff from the fields and excess rainwater around the house and into the pond, which has an overflow into the ditches next to the road. It’s telling that during the 2007 floods here, most of the houses that were worst hit by flooding were built after 1900, when space was becoming an issue so people built on the floodplains. There are some aerial photos of Tewkesbury that show the original, 14thC abbey and the older section of town completely dry on a little island surrounded by floodwater, while all the newer buildings are underwater.
It all comes down to space; my neighbour didn’t want such a big ditch because it took up too much space so he filled it in and put in a pipe to take the excess water away. And, as predicted by my parents, the pipe wasn’t big enough to handle the downpours we get here sometimes.
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