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The first time this hit a week or two ago our patio "flooded" to about 4 or 5 cm deep in water alarmingly quickly. I grabbed a broom and jiggled around the dra

The first time this hit a week or two ago our patio "flooded" to about 4 or 5 cm deep in water alarmingly quickly. I grabbed a broom and jiggled around the drain to remove some leaves/twigs/mud and it cleared within 30 seconds. Today, no flood on our patio I wonder what the state of the drains are in most of London's streets considering the recent lack of basic services due to covid... This is not exactly new - its not like we don't get rain in London so I am surprised this is happening quite so frequently It would not surprise me to hear that basic street cleaning has been totally neglected for the past 18 months

gerdesj 5y ago
Pop down to Screwfix or whatever and grab a set of drain rods (about £30-50) and some manhole cover lifters (a few quid). Some long flat screwdrivers and a jemmy are also useful for lifting covers. Wear marigolds or marigolds under rigger gloves or those red coloured anti chemical gloves (watch out for holes.) Find out what is your responsibility to keep clear. The drains are fine for what they are designed to deal with which is weather as it was known many decades ago. All that stuff is designed to deal with a 1 in n year event eg a 1 in 100 year event or 1 in 500 or 1 in 1000 etc. The problem is that 1 in 100 year events are happening nearly annually these days. It's not quite as bad as that but not far off. Have a think about where you are in relation to flooding events because they will happen more often and with increasing severity where you are. If you have a mate who is a Civil Engineer or a Hydrologist, works in Flooding in the Environmental Agency or other useful type, instead of a banker or IT (I'm an ex Civ Eng and now work in IT - bloody useless) then buy them a beer or two and ask for advice. Keep your drains clear and your guttering too.
- kortilla 5y ago
  > The problem is that 1 in 100 year events are happening nearly annually these days. But that doesn’t matter if they are actually designed to handle 1 in 100 year events. If the drains can’t handle a storm it means it wasn’t implemented to do so, whether it happens annually or once every 50 years.
  - gerdesj 5y ago
    Perhaps I should have mentioned that 1 in 500 year events are occuring a bit too often these days too. I believe that the floods in Germany are being described as a 1 in 1000 year event. Some of the buildings we saw being washed away near the river Ahr etc were whitewashed, timber framed - that means they are at least 300 years old. The thing is that these 1 in n events are no longer static, if indeed they ever were. One thing is for certain, the 1 in n year description thing needs throwing out. A huge number of building/structural standards are complete and utter bollocks.
hughrr 5y ago
My back garden gets flooded due to that all the time. The neighbour puts their food down the sink so it blocks up under the ground. You end up with peas in the grass the day after. The birds seem to make short work of it and the grass grows nicely so I’m not overly bothered. Streets however round us require wellies if it has been raining.
bearbin 5y ago
Anecodtally, street cleaning hasn't changed that much over the pandemic, with the streets being just about as dirty as normal. That said, over a longer period the main roads near me have been getting quite badly deteriorated due to a lack of responsive maintenance (filling potholes, repair after utility works) and a lacking capital budget for resurfacing. TfL (who has responsibility for maintenance of main roads as well as the city's public transport) has had its overall budget reduced and as road maintenance is not an important issue politically or from a revenue-generation perspective that budget has been reduced to a low level. During the heavy rains today, I took a walk down the Camberwell New Road (a major road of 2-4 lanes) and the road was completely covered with water in several places, in others the water covered the bus lane, although in some stretches the water was clear. The sewers were not overwhelmed by the rain, evidenced by the drains that were flowing well and draining, however around 70% of the drains were blocked, 20% by leaves and dirt which I could clear off but 50% blocked internally by silt. A normal maintance schedule involves cleaning the silt out with a lorry-mounted vacuum cleaner several times a year, but this seems not to be done! One drain was blocked by silt after a burst water main about 3 years ago and has not been unblocked since, despite backing up every time it rained and being reported to TfL through their road defect site many times. However, not all flooding can be blamed on blocked drains, as some sections of the road are incorrectly pitched or have no drains at all and will always pond during rain. This would properly be remedied during heavy resurfacing, but that is also long overdue.
yreg 5y ago
Very mildly related: I recently found this youtuber whos thing is walking around in heavy rain and unclogging street drains. Neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIBqdpR4C_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIBqdpR4C_U
xeromal 5y ago
Here in Los Angeles, so many people were required to work from home that we stopped street sweeping since street parking was configured for a good portion going to work elsewhere. I'm sure a ton of our drains are full of pine straw and such and with a good rain, we'd be fucked. Not sure if anyone is culpable. It's the reality of a shutdown.
FerretFred 5y ago
Not in London, but I can confirm that the only time drains are cleared around here is when someone bothers to complain to the Council. Then there's usually a delay because the blockages are causing widespread street flooding and the Council can't cope. As for actual street cleaning, I can't remember the last time...

gerdesj 5y ago

Pop down to Screwfix or whatever and grab a set of drain rods (about £30-50) and some manhole cover lifters (a few quid). Some long flat screwdrivers and a jemmy are also useful for lifting covers. Wear marigolds or marigolds under rigger gloves or those red coloured anti chemical gloves (watch out for holes.) Find out what is your responsibility to keep clear. The drains are fine for what they are designed to deal with which is weather as it was known many decades ago. All that stuff is designed to deal with a 1 in n year event eg a 1 in 100 year event or 1 in 500 or 1 in 1000 etc. The problem is that 1 in 100 year events are happening nearly annually these days. It's not quite as bad as that but not far off. Have a think about where you are in relation to flooding events because they will happen more often and with increasing severity where you are. If you have a mate who is a Civil Engineer or a Hydrologist, works in Flooding in the Environmental Agency or other useful type, instead of a banker or IT (I'm an ex Civ Eng and now work in IT - bloody useless) then buy them a beer or two and ask for advice. Keep your drains clear and your guttering too.

kortilla 5y ago
> The problem is that 1 in 100 year events are happening nearly annually these days. But that doesn’t matter if they are actually designed to handle 1 in 100 year events. If the drains can’t handle a storm it means it wasn’t implemented to do so, whether it happens annually or once every 50 years.
- gerdesj 5y ago
  Perhaps I should have mentioned that 1 in 500 year events are occuring a bit too often these days too. I believe that the floods in Germany are being described as a 1 in 1000 year event. Some of the buildings we saw being washed away near the river Ahr etc were whitewashed, timber framed - that means they are at least 300 years old. The thing is that these 1 in n events are no longer static, if indeed they ever were. One thing is for certain, the 1 in n year description thing needs throwing out. A huge number of building/structural standards are complete and utter bollocks.

hughrr 5y ago

My back garden gets flooded due to that all the time. The neighbour puts their food down the sink so it blocks up under the ground. You end up with peas in the grass the day after. The birds seem to make short work of it and the grass grows nicely so I’m not overly bothered. Streets however round us require wellies if it has been raining.

bearbin 5y ago

Anecodtally, street cleaning hasn't changed that much over the pandemic, with the streets being just about as dirty as normal. That said, over a longer period the main roads near me have been getting quite badly deteriorated due to a lack of responsive maintenance (filling potholes, repair after utility works) and a lacking capital budget for resurfacing. TfL (who has responsibility for maintenance of main roads as well as the city's public transport) has had its overall budget reduced and as road maintenance is not an important issue politically or from a revenue-generation perspective that budget has been reduced to a low level. During the heavy rains today, I took a walk down the Camberwell New Road (a major road of 2-4 lanes) and the road was completely covered with water in several places, in others the water covered the bus lane, although in some stretches the water was clear. The sewers were not overwhelmed by the rain, evidenced by the drains that were flowing well and draining, however around 70% of the drains were blocked, 20% by leaves and dirt which I could clear off but 50% blocked internally by silt. A normal maintance schedule involves cleaning the silt out with a lorry-mounted vacuum cleaner several times a year, but this seems not to be done! One drain was blocked by silt after a burst water main about 3 years ago and has not been unblocked since, despite backing up every time it rained and being reported to TfL through their road defect site many times. However, not all flooding can be blamed on blocked drains, as some sections of the road are incorrectly pitched or have no drains at all and will always pond during rain. This would properly be remedied during heavy resurfacing, but that is also long overdue.

yreg 5y ago

Very mildly related: I recently found this youtuber whos thing is walking around in heavy rain and unclogging street drains. Neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIBqdpR4C_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIBqdpR4C_U

xeromal 5y ago

Here in Los Angeles, so many people were required to work from home that we stopped street sweeping since street parking was configured for a good portion going to work elsewhere. I'm sure a ton of our drains are full of pine straw and such and with a good rain, we'd be fucked. Not sure if anyone is culpable. It's the reality of a shutdown.

FerretFred 5y ago

Not in London, but I can confirm that the only time drains are cleared around here is when someone bothers to complain to the Council. Then there's usually a delay because the blockages are causing widespread street flooding and the Council can't cope. As for actual street cleaning, I can't remember the last time...