With hundreds of homes flooded, after both the River Avon and River Severn burst their banks, the professionals and volunteers combined to do the best they could. In the early hours, the flooding was like a river. There were hundreds of people being helped by them that day as they had been trapped in Tewkesbury because the motorway had flooded and was closed. I went to the Scout Hut for at least three to four days. Vernon went on to become a town, borough and county councillor after deciding to get into politics in order to improve flood protection and maintenance by watercourses.
Being a civil engineer, it got my hackles up. The floods in Tewkesbury claimed the lives of Bram and Chris Lane, with the father and son being overcome by fumes as they pumped water out of the basement of Tewkesbury Rugby Club. Mitchell Taylor drowned in floodwater near Tewkesbury Abbey after trying to return home following a night out drinking. Tally remembered the death of the year-old, saying he was with the rescuers who found the body.
We owed it to the family to find out where he was. One motorist in Gloucester dived out of his car's sunroof to escape the floodwater. Another dramatic event took place under a bridge in Tredworth, Gloucester, on July Motorist Graham Hancy had to be pulled out of his almost completely submerged car by brave rescuers, some of whom dived into 6ft of water to help him. The floods in Tredworth on July 20 , footage by riselli on YouTube.
More accustomed to tidal and open water, their team spent five days and nights negotiating their way through flooded streets and coming face-to-face with the many, many people who had lost everything. All we had to go on was a line of yew trees along the road, so we followed that to get there. They climbed out into the boat and then told us we were floating directly above their garage, that's how deep it was.
While the scale of the disaster was truly shocking, Geoff said for them it's simply what they do. There was no choice. Since the floods, SARA has opened its second station in Gloucestershire, at Tewkesbury, so it is better prepared and nearby if anything similar comes close to happening again. He remembers vividly the huge - but 'straight forward' - decision to close the Mythe Water Treatment Works. Tally was asked to meet the manager of the site and did so after getting a lift from someone driving a high-wheeled lorry through floodwater blocking his route into the town.
The plant would have been off line for weeks so it was damage limitation. At the meeting, he was warned company staff needed to act quickly to prevent permanent damage being caused to vital equipment. When he asked what the consequences of shutting the site down were, he was told , people would lose their water supply temporarily. But he was also informed that not shutting it down would see the plant being out of action for weeks.
That, he was told, would see people go without water for much longer. It was the water from the Avon first, closely followed by the water from the Severn. Some , people came so, so close to losing power as river levels rose to within inches of a switching station where , volts are transformed in to usable power for Gloucestershire and beyond. In fact Castle Mead substation nearby was switched off as water rushed in, leaving 48, homes without power for around 19 hours.
If they had failed, , homes would have had no electricity supply. After waiting for three hours with mum Kelly Demvenski, son Jake, aged three from Tuffley, gives her a hand in collecting their allocation of free bottled water from the army in the car park of the Tesco store at Quedgeley. Although rain receded on the Sunday of the floods crisis, it was the day when the enormity of the rescue and recovery task facing firefighters became truly apparent.
River levels rose as rainfall further upstream in the Midlands and Wales took effect. The Mythe water treatment works at Tewkesbury was the first affected, then later in the day the two stations on the banks of the Severn were under imminent threat of being engulfed. Twelve hours after the Mythe had been shut down, Walham electrical switching sub-station was under threat. Then an hour later, the sub-station at Castle Mead faced the same peril. Although it was switched off, serious damage was averted by throwing up a temporary flood wall around it and pumping the water all the way along that section of the South West bypass, in to the Gloucester and Sharpness canal, via Llanthony Road.
Western Power Distribution shared these images of Castle Mead from At Walham, six huge pumps were installed along with nine smaller ones. Around personnel were there plus Royal Navy marines and the Army, and they set about building a barrier around the site.
With an aluminium frame covered by huge lengths of plastic tarpaulin weighed down by sandbags and lengths of metal chain, the aim was to get more water out than was coming in. By Monday evening, the battle reached a crucial stage. As the water came half way up the barrier, which was about ft high, the National Grid was considering shutting the site down. That was because inside the building, water was just inches from vital switch gear, under the floor. That would have meant cutting power to , people on Monday evening, just as their water supplies were running dry.
The 'Battle of Walham' was won with two inches to spare before water would have topped the switch gear, as Monday night turned into Tuesday morning. The Walham switching station transforms , volts down to , volts where it is transformed again at sub-stations including Castle Mead and nearby Port Ham. It was then run by Central Networks, and has since seen massive improvements under the auspices of National Grid. Louise and Elysia Byrne behind a sand bag wall in the front doorway of their property in Cypress Gardens.
It was worth every penny to them though, as they can sleep soundly at night and one day will be able to sell the home near a spot where the Severn can get so low that it is said that the Romans forded it nearby. Updated am on 14 November Produced by the Met Office and Environment Agency. Telephone: Textphone: Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Find out more about call charges.
Cookies on Check for flooding We use some essential cookies to make this service work. View your cookie settings. Check another location. Coastal Flooding in Towyn Boscastle Flood- 16th August Tewkesbury Flood in July Flooding Policies.
Questionnaire on UK Floods. Progress Report. Tewkesbury is situated in Gloucestershire, see Figure 10, and was the worst affected part of the county when the floods hit in July It was widely reported in the media, particularly images of the Abbey which became surrounded by flood water, see Figure Physical Causes.
By 24th July, , properties in Gloucestershire had no water supply. Alternative water supplies by bottles, bowsers and tankers had to be used, see Figure Water supplies were not fully restored until the 1st August Severn Trent Water,
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