Someone suggested that water was diverted to protect critical structures like the power grid at the cost of flooding homes. It might explain why flood defences did not work.
Anyone have knowledge of this?

Someone suggested that water was diverted to protect critical structures like the power grid at the cost of flooding homes. It might explain why flood defences did not work.
Anyone have knowledge of this?You may well be right but I very much doubt anyone in the know would confirm this.

It was openly admitted that much of the flooding at catcliffe was due to water being pumped out of the reservoir up streem, to save the dam.

Allegedly the flooding at Oughtibridge was either caused by or worsened by reservoir(s) being drained into the river upstream to make sure that the banks didn't breach.

This has always been my assumption, somewhere up country they tried to save some "infrastructure" and obviously thought the rivers could cope.
Looking back at the floods, they came so quickly, and receeded just as quickly, and it seems like a dream.
We have had heavy rain since, and the river Don has hardly risen an inch.
But, as with everything else, the general public will never know.
By the way, this is just my opinion.

The one sure way to stop the rivers breaching is to clear the silt out of them by dredging and then there will be no need to divert, went to matlock at the weekend and in places there was only 1 foot of water above the river bed in many places but plenty of other places where the water was about 10 feet deep, if all the riverbed was levelled there would be better scope for the flow.

would help if they had the equipment to dredge the riverbeds and remove all the silt.

It was openly admitted that much of the flooding at catcliffe was due to water being pumped out of the reservoir up streem, to save the dam.

I was at the dam that first night and know this to be true but don't moan on as if they had done anything else the dam would have breached and there would be no more catcliffe and no more a lot of other things including a stretch of the M1.
I saw the damage close up and know how close catcliffe came to being wiped out. I also saw the tired faces of men that had worked silly hours to save your homes.

When all the moaning is ignored for the rubbish it is we have to consider that a massive rainfall happened in a short time and the authorities did the best they could to help as many people as they could.

Pack in the pathetic moaning (and/or looking for someone to sue) and start saying thank you to the services that worked like hell to do the best they could. :rant:

Allegedly the flooding at Oughtibridge was either caused by or worsened by reservoir(s) being drained into the river upstream to make sure that the banks didn't breach.

Yorkshire water deny this:roll::roll:

Another revelation (to me, anyway) was that the flood victims could receive financial aid from the European Solidarity Fund rather than have to wait for insurance companies/councils to cough up.
Apparently all our government had to do was ask Brussels.
It didn't happen.

Another revelation (to me, anyway) was that the flood victims could receive financial aid from the European Solidarity Fund rather than have to wait for insurance companies/councils to cough up.
Apparently all our government had to do was ask Brussels.
It didn't happen.

Thats not a surprise is it!

Thats not a surprise is it!

If I was still waiting for an insurance assessment/settlement, I don't think that 'surprise' would be a word I would be using!

I think that the damage has to be over something like £2.2bn before we can apply to the European Solidarity Fund for aid, and the government is still trying to calculate how much the damage is worth, so it's not been ruled out yet.

The draining of the reseviours in ewden and underbank / langsett is a load of rubbish. I personally have pictures and video of the overflows. There was no draining of these just the water reaching beyond the full limit and gussing down the overflows. As it is designed to do. :roll: