The Lemon Fool

I have been watching the news reports from places that have been flooded and have been surprised at the number of cars that seem to be affected.

If you knew there was a high probability that your street would be flooded overnight wouldn't you move your car to higher ground?

John

Selection effect, people away, and perhaps even people in financial difficulty wanting to claim on the insurance. And these are the same people who've bought houses in flood risk areas, so have a different view on flooding to the rest of us.

Humans seem to have an infinite capacity for convincing themselves that "it won't happen to me". Even if the "experts, huh, what do they know?" happen to be right.

But I suspect that most people don't know how fast the water level can rise until it does. And by that stage, the police have blocked off the road anyway, so you think there's nothing to be done. And you're probably right. Even if you started your engine, it would probably lock up with water, which of course is terminal because water in your bores is harder than concrete.

And then there are the eejits who think they're turning left (in any depth of water) and steer straight into a flooded ditch that they didn't know was there, whereupon they overturn. We had a van do that in one of our local lanes last week.

What I'd like to know is what happens to these flooded cars? Are they always scrapped? Or do they turn up on Autotrader with fresh carpets and a lifetime of dodgy electrics?

BJ

Maybe it is no more complicated than that they have more important things to worry about. I do not like the cynicism that pervades the Boards sometimes. Sure, some people will behave in a not very sensible way but it is very easy after the event to criticise.

Dod

With good warning I'd be using my car to shuttle key things to my friend who lives up the hill, and view it as a vital tool to help sort out the mess afterwards. With little warning I'd be so busy dragging things upstairs or calming my scared children to think about it. And I doubt the authorities can give accurate timelines for when the barriers close the roads. It could all be planned for, but few people plan for floods, and the ones that did had moved their cars.

Dod101 wrote:Maybe it is no more complicated than that they have more important things to worry about. I do not like the cynicism that pervades the Boards sometimes. Sure, some people will behave in a not very sensible way but it is very easy after the event to criticise.

I'm not hearing criticism from anybody, Dod. Puzzlement, yes. An attempt to rationalise, yes also.

As a landlord, I've spent half my life trying to put myself in the place of people on the breadline who make decisions that I wouldn't make. That's not criticising them, it's figuring out what's going on. There's a difference.

BJ

It depends on where you live. I'm on the edge of the Somerset levels and for quite a few people here higher ground is where you go from below sea level to a few metres above sea level.

There hasn't been any significant flooding on the levels this time, unlike the winter of 2013-14. Having deliberately allowed that flooding to happen by using the EU's Water Frameworks, Flood and Habitat directives to stop the rivers and drainage channels from being dredged, the Environment Agency since then has been regularly dredging on the levels.