After heavy rain yesterday, the valley is a lake. A break in the weather today, thank goodness, and I went out with my camera to look at the levels. It's pretty, but with three more days of heavy rain and floods forecast, and the rivers at some of the highest levels ever recorded, the feeling in the village is one of trepidation. I took this photo standing on the road that was underwater on Christmas Eve. To the left, the Medway has burst its banks, and to the right, so has the stream that comes off the Eden.
The road is passable for now:
But it won't take much more rain for the water to start spilling over again:
With a bit of sunshine, it all looks deceptively picturesque:
Yet this is what the force of the flow did to the fence at the side of the road...
The damage is far greater downriver, where the poor people of Yalding and beyond have had a miserable time of it, their homes standing in feet of muddy water. Our flood water is at least controlled, even if the roads get sacrificed for a while: it is a holding bay for a flood barrier.
Our domestic flooding is a different matter, due to a silted-up drain on the main road into which run-off water pours down from a sizeable hill. This afternoon, if the local council cannot spare an unblocking team - and unbelievably, as it's on a public highway, they say they cannot allow a private company or indeed the water company to do it in their place! - we hope for sandbags as we dry out towels and sodden newspaper, and compare flood defences with our neighbours...
