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The historic city of York, UK has just suffered the worst flood in many, many years on boxing day. Great areas of the city were affected. Many parts of the city were cut off, telephones were cut when water got into the telephone exchange so no broadband either. The village where I live on the outskirts of the city was on severe flood alert but fortunately the rivers peaked without reaching us.
The River Ouse that flows right through the city centre overflowed it's banks due to all the rivers coming down from the Yorkshire Dales being full after all the rain.
A view of the city centre
The cause of much of the flooding was the failure of the barrier at the junction of the Rivers Ouse and Foss
This is how the barrier should look over the quite small River Foss, beyond is the River Ouse
But because the flood waters got into the pumping station they had to open the barrier allowing the River Ouse to flow back up the Foss. The water flowed back up the Foss and into all the small streams that normally feed into it. It was strange to see the stream through our village flowing the opposite way to normal.
This is the result of that barrier being open
Sadly the Jorvik Viking centre has been flooded and may not reopen for about a year. Luckily they managed to move the old Viking finds to safety but the reconstructed Viking village is soaked.
We have just heard too that a 300 year old bridge in a small town just a few miles away has collapsed, splitting the town in two.
The River Ouse that flows right through the city centre overflowed it's banks due to all the rivers coming down from the Yorkshire Dales being full after all the rain.
A view of the city centre
The cause of much of the flooding was the failure of the barrier at the junction of the Rivers Ouse and Foss
This is how the barrier should look over the quite small River Foss, beyond is the River Ouse
But because the flood waters got into the pumping station they had to open the barrier allowing the River Ouse to flow back up the Foss. The water flowed back up the Foss and into all the small streams that normally feed into it. It was strange to see the stream through our village flowing the opposite way to normal.
This is the result of that barrier being open
Sadly the Jorvik Viking centre has been flooded and may not reopen for about a year. Luckily they managed to move the old Viking finds to safety but the reconstructed Viking village is soaked.
We have just heard too that a 300 year old bridge in a small town just a few miles away has collapsed, splitting the town in two.