At around 9pm Saturday evening standing at the end of our little layby on the A4104 looking over the fields into Upton and over to Malvern the scene was pretty remarkable with there being water as far as one could see.
It was clear on Friday that it was going to flood. After only 1 year living here and seeing 4 (now 5) floods the sheer amount of rain that fell during the day made it a no brainer. That coupled with the reports of flash floods everywhere (of which we had a few on the main roads) we were sure that by Saturday a lot of that water would filter down to the Severn and we’d be screwed.
Sure enough this morning around 8am I walked into work and yep, Upton was flooded. Not much worse than the other times we’ve seen but because the defences got stuck in the truck on the M50 they were not there to help; so all the boozers and houses on the waterfront were underwater, it was a pitiful sight. Made worse by the pretty bunting and marquees everywhere ready for the Upton Blues Festival which was due to happen this weekend.
Access to the office was fine and I spoke with my landlord who also runs the map shop (great URL!) and he reckoned that the worst it has ever been was the ‘big floods of 1947′ where the water came half way up the lane that our building is on. Heartened by this I got on with a full days work.
Later heading home I was struck by just how much the river was pouring into the field next to the bridge over the considerably higher secondary bank; this changed things dramatically. Within 3-4 hours the A4104 was impassible and all of the fields were lakes with a swift current through the middle. At 8pm I went down to the corner to see why the cars were all stopped outside our house and a last few 4×4’s were getting though what looked like 1/2 a meter of water before the road was closed and the police made everyone turn around.
By 10pm I went back down and it was now right to the bend in the road and quite evidently over waist height. As I was there a huge tractor with massive wheels waded through and it was entering his cab. I’d class that as a closed road.
My hope is that even though it’ll likely rise more tonight, the road does start to rise pretty quickly and then we’re further set back from the road on a second slope. Being paranoid I’ve parked my car a few hundred meters further up the hill where it levels out; if it gets that far then most of this side of the country will be under water and having a wet car will be the least of my concerns.
So with nothing more than a flooded cellar and an inability to get to work - though the VPN is currently still up so I pulled all the stuff I’m likely to need for the next week - I’d say we’ve personally got off very lightly, so far. I can only imagine how bad it is in Upton and of course all over the area at the moment. I know for a fact that poor Iain had to abandon his car on the way home Friday night and has no idea how much water it is currently under!
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