Last week it was snow; today it’s floods. I’ve not known a winter like this for years.
I arrived home last night soaked to the skin, and we woke up this morning to find the reserve under water. Enough water to come almost to the top of my boots as I waded out while keeping to the highest parts of the path. That’s what a month’s-worth of rain in one night does.
You couldn’t see where the river stopped, the banks began and the reserve continued. It was like waking up in the Everglades.
The radio was full of doom and gloom. The trains were running, but the roads were clogged, and the Environment Agency had put a severe flood warning on Chelmsford – the only one in the country. They said we should be ready to evacuate. So I closed the cat flap to keep him in in case we should need to coerce him into his carrier and retreat to higher ground, and I put the chickens in the greenhouse so they could dry off their feet and perch on the potting bench.
I switched on the computer and worked from home, waiting for an ominous knock on the door telling us to pack our essentials and get out.
As the morning wore on, the water crept higher. By lunchtime it was right across the reserve, all over the playground at the end of the road and through the back fence of the house opposite. The benches in the park were up to their seats in water…
Chelmer Valley Nature Reserve
Further down stream the water was much deeper, and at the back of the university you could only see the very top of the bench. It was a good four feet deep, at least…
Very top of a bench in the Reserve
For the time being it looks like the march of the waters may have paused, and we’ve not had any rain since early morning. What we don’t know, of course, is how much water there still is to come downstream, or how the snow melt, which will have been sped up by the thorough drenching it’s just had, will contribute to the flow. Some of the allotment is flooded, and that must be heartbreaking for whoever’s plots were affected.
Whatever happens, one thing’s for certain: this is going to take a lot of cleaning up.
