Saturday September 6, 2008 by Mike A
Faced with a rainfall of last night’s spectacular dimensions (a record-busting 39mm in eight hours, according to our resident weather man), one would have assumed that the higher up your property, the safer you would be. In this case, almost the reverse turned out to be true. For a few hours, the unfortunate residents of Smithy Lane found their houses temporarily converted into “riverside properties”, as one resident wrily put it.
With the floods pouring down from Parwich Hill at an unprecedented rate, Smithy Lane became a gushing torrent, as today’s tide marks on the side of buildings still demonstrate. At the bottom of the road, the waters cascaded down the footpath leading to the school, ripping up the tarmac to a degree that suggested an earthquake had struck. The road damage continued beyond the school and down to the square, even exposing subterranean pipes in some areas. Elsewhere, wheelie bins had been overturned and carried along by the current.
Down by the brook that connects the Alsop road to the green, a collapsed wall now forms the gateway to yet more destruction. Most of the waterside path has been badly churned up and waterlogged, rendering it almost impassable.
Perhaps some of the worst damage of all is to be found in and around The Sycamore, as the photo below amply demonstrates. As we passed, a council lorry was unloading sandbags in the car park. Our sympathies to Janet and Steve, who have suffered more flood-related disruption over the years than most.
On the lower lying land towards the south eastern edge of the village, more properties have been flooded, and more mopping-up operations are taking place. Again, our sympathies to all villagers who have been affected.
(Please click each image to enlarge it.)
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Update from your local officer September 2008
PARWICH.ORG 
