Carissa

I'm going to be in London in 2 weeks and I am concerned about not being able to have a nice trip with all of the flooding and such. Should I be worried about this?? Are things going to close down? Any feedback is appreciated.

erica

I am also heading to England (10 days!) and am worried about the weather. I can't seem to find local news to see if Winchester, Bath and Thornbury are affected by the flooding. Anyone have any information they can share? Will it affect driving to these places or walking around in these cities?

Jean

We just returned from England..a day late..the roads were so bad and the traffic such that we could not get to the airport. <BR>The conditions are very poor. the trains are running on reduced schedules anyway, because of safety concerns and with the flooding they are almost at a standstill. the roads are flooded in many places...this means road closures with the usual traffic pileups as a result. If you can be a good sport you should have a good time. Plan on longer than usual for everything. <BR>Jean

Jean

PS..yes things might be closed...especially if the weather stays bad.

Jan

Erica, I live about 8 miles from Winchester and as far as I know it is fine. A friend was there at the weekend and said there were a few sandbags around at the part of the city near the river but they were just precautionary. Hampshire on the whole has not suffered as badly as other counties, though some villages in the Meon Valley have been flooded and many rivers have flood alerts things are not as bad as say Yorkshire or Sussex. I have not heard anything about Bath though places like Worcester, Gloucester and other towns boardering the Severn are flooded. I haven't looked but the BBC web site might have more news. Hope you enjoy winchester in spite of the rain.

erica

Thank you Jan! I feel much better already. <BR> <BR>I've looked up the BBC site, and tried to find some local news for the areas we're visiting. I don't mind rain at all, I kind of like wild weather. As long as we can get through and have a dry bed, I'll be in heaven.

Steve Mueller

My wife and I just returned from England on Sunday and there were a number of problems associated with floodin <BR>g, train track repair work, and a limited amount of panic queuing at the petrol stations. <BR> <BR>About five hours after we passed through, the Channel Tunnel was closed due to flooding. This was one week ago <BR> Sunday. Our hotel manager later informed us that the road between London and Salisbury was closed (also due t <BR>o flooding) shortly after our arrival. Stormy weather prevented me from getting my long-anticipated night shot <BR>s of Salisbury Cathedral (a tripod is not very effective in 90 mph wind gusts). A small amount of flooding in <BR>Bath didn't cause any serious problems. Flooding north of York prevented our planned side trip to Edinburgh. F <BR>ortunately, we decided against going to York instead- we later learned that York had the worst flooding in 400 <BR> years. <BR> <BR>During this period, London newspapers were running doom and gloom headlines (e.g., "Britain in Chaos"). Despit <BR>e all of this, we had a pretty good time. Flexibility was the key to salvaging the second half of our trip (th <BR>e first half was in Germany and the weather was much better). <BR> <BR>If you are going to be in London for the duration of your trip, you probably won't have any serious transporta <BR>tion limitations. If you are traveling outside of London, you need to balance potential rail problems (flooded <BR> tracks & repair-related delays) with potential driving problems (flooded roads & difficulties related to thre <BR>atened fuel protests, such as panic queuing and slow-moving protest caravans). Also, because the soil througho <BR>ut much of the UK is already saturated, additional flooding would not necessarily require another monster stor <BR>m- relatively normal amounts of rainfall could be sufficient. <BR> <BR>The best advice I can offer is to be as informed as possible before you leave, and have alternative plans in c <BR>ase travel to a certain region becomes impractical. <BR> <BR>Good luck. <BR>

Ben Haines

Scotland, the West Country, the Thames Valley, East Anglia, Cumberland and Lancashire are untouched. <BR> <BR>The London daily newspaper, the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) has a userul map of the picture last night at midnight. If I look at places attractive to tourists, there's flooding:- <BR>along the Severn, in Shrewsbury, Bewdley, Worcester, Tewkesbury and Gloucester <BR>along the Dee in Llangollen and Chester <BR>in east Sussex and west Kent, in Lewes and Penshurst <BR>In Surrey in Leatherhead <BR>along the Welland, Nene and Ouse, in Huntingdon <BR>in Derbyshire, in Buxton and Derby <BR>in Yorkshire, in York, Selby, Wakefield, Halifax, and Keighley <BR> <BR>I saw one local paper photo of flooding in Greenwich a few days ago, but I think that's over. In the West End and City everything's dry and running well, even the railways, which are a bit slow due to speed restrictions. <BR>I should expect that there are detailed reports for London on http://www.thisislondon.com, the site of the Evening Standard newspaper. <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR> <BR>Footnote: Winchester, Bath and Thornbury are unaffected. <BR> <BR>