The day for Sheffield, a northern English city started as usual, wet and rainy, yes there have been forecasts for a wet June and possible flooding in Northern England, but Sheffielders felt safe in the knowledge that their hilly city is not prone to flooding.
Not even Sheffielders remember when the last big flood occurred.
Digging back into history you would have to back over 150 years to 1864 when the Dale Dyke Dam burst.
The Market Oracle, based in Sheffield and situated on the river bank that felt the full force of the flooding as the following time-line illustrates: PICTURE 1 1.
30pm - The River Don that runs through the heart of the city was a raging torrent, but in the near 15 years we have been in our current premises, I have seen this many times before, many times.
A colleague suggests that the river is going to burst its banks, having only been with us for barely 2 years, he obviously was not party to my inside knowledge that it has never flooded in at least 15 years, nor have I known any serious flooding in Sheffield in the 40 years I have lived here.
So I ask my colleague to put his money where his mouth is, a bet ! "I bet you £50 the river won't burst".
But he won't take the bet ! About 10 min's later, 1.
40pm with the waters rising, I venture out to take a closer look.
PICTURE 2 - See here for Articles with embedded pictures - http://www.
marketoracle.
co.
uk/Article1371.
html 1.
40pm - The river is very high, now reaching the walkway path which implies that it is likely to overspill, still this would be a far cry from an actual flooding PICTURE 3 1.
50pm - The drainage appears to be failing in the car park.
Which is alarming because if the drainage is failing then it does not matter of the river bursts its banks as we could still yet get flooding.
So I decide to move my car to a little higher ground, out of the car park.
PICTURE 4 1.
55pm - I am called to the reception to investigate flooding as water from the front of the building starts to enter the premises PICTURE 5 1.
57pm - Barely 2 minutes later the flooding at reception worsens with the waters rising very fast.
With very little that can be done to prevent the inevitable.
PICTURE 6 2pm - Within 10 minutes the car park started to sustain serious flooding.
Given the flooding in reception and the car park flooding, I decide to call it a day and instruct our personnel to go home.
PICTURE 7 2.
02pm - The front of the building is already flooded, as the drainage system completely fails.
PICTURE 8 2.
17pm - Not everyone has headed the advice, one of the remaining cars literally starts to drift in the car park.
PICTURE 9 2.
21pm - The Reception area is flooded by 6 inches with at least another foot of water building up.
The building at this point is closed.
PICTURE 10 3.
30pm - The car park is completely flooded.
PICTURE 11 3.
35pm - The front of the building is under at least 3 feet of water, which means the offices will have sustained serious flooding.
PICTURE 12 Throughout the late afternoon and evening, three RAF helicopters rescued hundreds of trapped people in neighboring buildings as the water levels continued to rise.
At the time of posting this article there were two confirmed deaths in the city, one of which was in the immediate vicinity of our building.
For More photos including the Day After See - http://www.
spatc.
org/article55.
html Serious questions need to be asked as to why the UK's fifth largest city has such an inadequate drainage system.
Especially as the area is under going a construction boom with many developments near completion now damaged by flood waters.