Getting ready to leave for New Wine in Shepton Mallet at the end of the week. I never thought I'd see it in this light before ... having water on tap makes it positively appealing (even if it is a communial tap!).
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Fourth night without fresh water
We're now into the fourth night/day without mains water supply. We've survived so far on reserves but drinking water is getting low ... It'll be a visit to one of the bowsers or water bottle distribution points tomorrow. The rain that's forecast should replenish the water butts.
Monday, 23 July 2007
Flooding in Gloucester
Gloucester, where OSCAR is based and where we live, is experiencing floods .... as you may have heard.
On Friday afternoon it took me 2 hours to get from the OSCAR office (at Redcliffe College in Gloucester) to my house less than 3 miles away. The terrential rain flooded all the bridges under the railway (between Gloucester centre and the east side of the city, where we live). The bypass on the A40 at the Cheltenham Road roundabout became a river and many folk abandonned their cars, I turned around and passed by the college nearly an hour after leaving to try a different route. I got home by crawling through the gridlocked streets to, what seemed to be, the only way out of the city on the east side - the Metz Way flyover.
On Saturday I travelled up to Newark to set up the Mission Resource Stand at New Wine North. The M5 was closed for some of the way northbound, so I resorted to A roads. It took me 4 hours to get there, due to the flooding on the A46 between Tewkesbury and Evesham. The journey back at midnight was clear all the way down the M42 and M5.
Yesterday (Sunday), due to the water treatment plant in Tewkesbury being flooded, our fresh water supply in Gloucester ran out - so we're trying to make what we have last as long as possible. Years of experience living in Africa suddenly come in handy once again! It's still raining on and off, so we're using rainwater reserves for as much as possible.
In the last two hours the River Severn has burst its banks in Gloucester and low lying areas of the city are starting to flood. We're on slightly higher ground so we should be OK, but the electricity supply is being threatened as several sub-stations are very close to being flooded out.
Just in case you are wondering, the OSCAR website shouldn't be affected at all! That's hosted on a server in London.
On Friday afternoon it took me 2 hours to get from the OSCAR office (at Redcliffe College in Gloucester) to my house less than 3 miles away. The terrential rain flooded all the bridges under the railway (between Gloucester centre and the east side of the city, where we live). The bypass on the A40 at the Cheltenham Road roundabout became a river and many folk abandonned their cars, I turned around and passed by the college nearly an hour after leaving to try a different route. I got home by crawling through the gridlocked streets to, what seemed to be, the only way out of the city on the east side - the Metz Way flyover.
On Saturday I travelled up to Newark to set up the Mission Resource Stand at New Wine North. The M5 was closed for some of the way northbound, so I resorted to A roads. It took me 4 hours to get there, due to the flooding on the A46 between Tewkesbury and Evesham. The journey back at midnight was clear all the way down the M42 and M5.
Yesterday (Sunday), due to the water treatment plant in Tewkesbury being flooded, our fresh water supply in Gloucester ran out - so we're trying to make what we have last as long as possible. Years of experience living in Africa suddenly come in handy once again! It's still raining on and off, so we're using rainwater reserves for as much as possible.
In the last two hours the River Severn has burst its banks in Gloucester and low lying areas of the city are starting to flood. We're on slightly higher ground so we should be OK, but the electricity supply is being threatened as several sub-stations are very close to being flooded out.
Just in case you are wondering, the OSCAR website shouldn't be affected at all! That's hosted on a server in London.
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