Weather Eye: it's horrible outside, but still better than in 1809
Britain was faced with some of the worst floods on record 200 years ago. In mid-January 1809 heavy rain froze into sheets of ice on the ground, followed by thick snowfalls. On January 24, a terrific gale battered the country, sinking several ships in the Channel.
The storm also brought intense rains that melted the snows and unleashed a deluge of floodwater, which the frozen ground could not absorb. Rivers turned into raging torrents, bridges were destroyed, roads made impassable and several mail coaches were washed away. The total number of people killed is not known, but in Bath several people died when houses collapsed under the onslaught of floodwaters from the River Avon.
Much of the countryside looked like an inland sea. “The whole country is in a most distressing state; it is covered in water,” reported The Times. “The water runs in torrents as high as the parlour windows. Numbers of poor inhabitants have nearly lost all their property, which has been carried away in the streams.” Even George III was left stranded at Windsor.
Conditions grew desperate in London. “In the neighbourhood of Kennington and Vauxhall, a torrent of water has risen, which in its progress has carried away furniture, trunks of trees, cattle etc, and has destroyed a great number of bridges,” wrote Gentleman’s Magazine. But it was not until 1877 that Parliament established river flood prevention measures.
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