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| A308 at Runnymede |
We’ve been keeping a very close eye on the Thames and the weather forecasts and, last week, the water level rose to within 2cm of spilling over! It looks more like the Amazon than the Thames!
Much of the flooding is actually ground water rising up, rather than direct flooding from the river, and the areas affected are quite small. Practical Bathing is outside of the flood area, so fairly safe – or so we thought…
On Wednesday 12th February, we experienced something of a hurricane with driving rain and howling winds. Then came a lightning bolt that struck extremely close to our building, knocking out the electrical supply. It took out the phones, fax, internet, credit card machine – in short, everything was down.
Miraculously there was no physical damage and, by replacing the router and card terminal, we were back up and running the following day. The way local people have rallied round to offer food, drinks and support for the emergency crews has been inspiring. Our Director, Paul, is a volunteer flood warden and was helping traffic flow at a flood area on Saturday.
With more water coming down, we are told that even higher water levels may be imminent – watch this space!
