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Flood Alerts Sheffield Autumn 2019

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I was inside the Meadowhall management suite at 10:30am on Thursday morning,  the desk staff were getting phone calls from people asking if the days events had been called off, even tho they couldn't give an answer you could tell that they were certain it would be called off but didn't have authority to make the call, but told callers that a decision was due to be made and when it was, the website would be updated immediately.  

 

The weather forecast for the next 12hrs or so was very heavy rain.

 

I'm sorry but why did it take until 6pm to actually decide to call off event, it never stopped raining all day.

 

I agree that it was bad judgment to travel to Meadowhall in such bad conditions, but with how bad the situation was so early, it was obvious that calling it off was the only safe option. 

Edited by JJJones

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I work in Sheffield city centre, our senior facility manager in London was monitoring the situation and due to the transport routes being affected from mid afternoon they made the decision to send staff home early, So out of their duty of care to workers.

 

Didnt Meadowhall see that even if the Christmas light “switch on” had gone ahead how would their customers have got home, also where was their duty to their staff getting home ? It looks non existent to me.

 

Peoples safety should have been a priority, I bet most of the shoppers that day were totally unaware what was unfolding outside, I was in Sheffield city centre and until the emails landed from senior management (about 2pm) saying the situation was worsening and transport options were starting to drop off, I was unaware how bad it was in the streets below. 
 

I have a feeling most larger business in Sheffield are connected to the “major incident group” so they receive consistent communications from the emergency services, I find it hard to believe Meadowhall was not part of this.

 

Yes Meadowhall was totally entitled to keep its doors open if the building was deemed safe, but it definitely didn’t show a duty of care to its customers on the 7th November. 

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12 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

I'm not sure I understand what's disgusting. Meadowhall are not a hotel they are not a homeless shelter or the red cross or the national health service.  They don't own nor control any of the stock or supplies in which to give out to people.

 

The flooding is not the fault of meadowhall it's a natural occurrence from extreme weather conditions.  It caught everyone off guard including the centre.

 

The police were the ones who forced people back inside until it was safe for them to leave.  Meadowhall reacted as best they could.

 

Im sure it is inconvenient that people may have had to buy food or a few basic supplies but that's just part of life.   It was just as inconvenient for those of us whose bus routes and tram routes suddenly stopped running and were supposed to find spend money on alternative ways home or for those of us who had to find and pay for alternative accommodation because we couldn't get home.

 

I really don't get what voting with your feet will achieve as it's completely against the wrong target.

Meadowhall showed zero duty of care to its customers, I would have been really ****** off if I had been stranded at Meadowhall that day, did they send out regular messages on the tannoy saying transport/roads were being affected?? I will vote with my feet as I’m sure others will 

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Meadowhall brashly symbolises all that is rotten about our materialistic society.  It hung on planning to go ahead with the light show for one reason only.... ££££££.

 

Awful place.

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9 hours ago, JJJones said:

I was inside the Meadowhall management suite at 10:30am on Thursday morning,  the desk staff were getting phone calls from people asking if the days events had been called off, even tho they couldn't give an answer you could tell that they were certain it would be called off but didn't have authority to make the call, but told callers that a decision was due to be made and when it was, the website would be updated immediately.  

 

The weather forecast for the next 12hrs or so was very heavy rain.

 

I'm sorry but why did it take until 6pm to actually decide to call off event, it never stopped raining all day.

 

I agree that it was bad judgment to travel to Meadowhall in such bad conditions, but with how bad the situation was so early, it was obvious that calling it off was the only safe option. 

I thought this might be what happened you often find that in big organisations nobody wants to make a big decision that if wrong serious questions would be asked of them.It was quite obvious though that with conditions already rapidly detraining in the  morning and more heavy rain forecast till midnight the decision should have been made hours earlier.

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There's a lot of blaming going on, but surely we should take some responsibility for our own safety?

Yesterday's media reports were focussed on people commenting "nobody told us it was going to flood", "nobody delivered us any sandbags", and the classic "look, my feet are wet".  But if you know your house / workplace / shopping centre / route home is at risk of flooding during heavy rain, why would you wait for somebody else to warn you, rather than make a decision for yourself to avoid it or mitigate it?  Given the amount of rain we'd experienced over recent days and the fact that a lot of leaves have fallen, it shouldn't really have come as a surprise.  My home is above the flood level, my workplace isn't - we had around a meter of water in the premises, but we were prepared and nobody got hurt or stranded, and as far as I know none of us is blaming Amey / Council / Brexit, it was a very unfortunate combination of natural factors.

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Guest busdriver1
1 hour ago, Crissie said:

There's a lot of blaming going on, but surely we should take some responsibility for our own safety?

Yesterday's media reports were focussed on people commenting "nobody told us it was going to flood", "nobody delivered us any sandbags", and the classic "look, my feet are wet".  But if you know your house / workplace / shopping centre / route home is at risk of flooding during heavy rain, why would you wait for somebody else to warn you, rather than make a decision for yourself to avoid it or mitigate it?  Given the amount of rain we'd experienced over recent days and the fact that a lot of leaves have fallen, it shouldn't really have come as a surprise.  My home is above the flood level, my workplace isn't - we had around a meter of water in the premises, but we were prepared and nobody got hurt or stranded, and as far as I know none of us is blaming Amey / Council / Brexit, it was a very unfortunate combination of natural factors.

How dare you. This goes against the very meaning of this forum suggesting people use common sense. Dear Me

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Both individuals and Meadowhall have to share the blame imo. We have had an excessive amount of rain in Sheffield over the course of the last month and it isn’t rocket science to work out that the rivers would burst their banks eventually.  Meadowhall should have paid heed to the weather warnings which were in place 24 hours prior to the Xmas light switch on as well as keep a close eye on the flood alerts on the environment agency. Cancelling an event at 5pm is a silly and irresponsible decision given that there would be a lot of young people wanting to attend the event. 
At the same time - individuals have to take some responsibility too . If I hadn’t had to work a shift in the afternoon / evening on Thursday I would have stayed at home ,  packed a bag ( as I live in a location known for flooding) and been prepared. Going shopping would have been the last thing I would be doing. BUT at the same time - for those who live in areas where they don’t have issues with flooding then would think differently about it. 
What I don’t think people were prepared for was the cancellation of public transport ( although in hindsight it’s not surprising trains/ tram and buses were  cancelled). 
 

 

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I think more was done in regards to the rivers themselves being capable of dealing with this kind of magnitude of water.

 

Getting rid of junk on the riverbed, getting rid of any other obstacles and deepening parts of the rivers where nature had not done the task sufficiently.

 

 

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And now someone has put pictures up of snow on the a635 holmfirth road tonight 

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The issue here is the SAG - the Safety Advisory Group.

 

They are not fit for purpose and regularly cause issues, rather than stop them.

 

They should have stopped this even long before it was officially called off.   Why didn't they?    Well because to be honest, they are an absolute joke and do not have a clue what they are doing.

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12 hours ago, YourTech said:

The issue here is the SAG - the Safety Advisory Group.

 

They are not fit for purpose and regularly cause issues, rather than stop them.

 

They should have stopped this even long before it was officially called off.   Why didn't they?    Well because to be honest, they are an absolute joke and do not have a clue what they are doing.

I think it’s because the SAG doesn’t have any powers to call the event off - the clue is in the middle word - advisory. If the event organiser chooses to ignore advice given then they would have to justify their decision in Court etc should anything subsequently go wrong. 
 

Meadowhall Live is a private event on private land and as such the event organiser is responsible for the safety of it. 
 

 

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