Laxey flooding

[Uhtred]

1930 was a bad year in Laxey, with the MER devastated by fire as well as flood.

“On the night of Saturday April 15th 1930, losses estimated to exceed £10,000 were incurred by a disastrous fire at Laxey Car Depot. Four motor cars, Nos. 3,4,8 and 24 together with trailers Nos. 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 44, all three tower wagons, a mail van, tools and equipment were consumed by the flames. The cause was said to be a burning cigarette inside one of the cars put away.

[Roger Mexico]

19 minutes ago, Uhtred said:

1930 was a bad year in Laxey, with the MER devastated by fire as well as flood.

“On the night of Saturday April 15th 1930, losses estimated to exceed £10,000 were incurred by a disastrous fire at Laxey Car Depot. Four motor cars, Nos. 3,4,8 and 24 together with trailers Nos. 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 44, all three tower wagons, a mail van, tools and equipment were consumed by the flames. The cause was said to be a burning cigarette inside one of the cars put away.

The Mines had finally closed the previous year as well and of course the Great Depression had started.  Not a happy time for them.

[Roger Mexico]

Manx Radio was oddly studio-bound during Tuesday's flooding - their way of reacting to the floods in Laxey was to send Dollin Mercer - down to the Tromode River.  Now that the Chief Minister has returned to us however, young Mr Mercer was allowed to accompany him to the Northern wilderness and even talk to the restless natives.  He actually made quite a good job of it (as I've said before the younger reporters seem less inclined to reduce every story, no matter how important, to five sentences) with a lot of interviews actually embedded in the piece, including a lot from residents who could actually say "I told you so" and had the evidence to prove it.

Quayle was there with his usual lack of self-reflection, mindless repeating cliches (at one point he really did assure us that "Lessons will be learned") and clearly deeply shocked when anyone suggested that there should be any consequences for anyone who had failed to do their job.  That's not how Manx government operates!

Perkins was very keen to denounce those who should have done something though less certain about who or what.  Certainly he doesn't seem to have been very assiduous in following up the various promises made in the past (I reckon he only asked a single question in Tynwald/Keys in the last year) and if he felt the way the Valley was being managed was leading to danger maybe he could have spoken to the DEFA member responsible for the Environment, a certain Martyn Perkins.

[TheTeapot]

Savage

[ecobob]

One thing to come from this is that the sluice gate (concrete structure) was brought down last night. Government have attempted many times over the years to remove it but MNH has always blocked their efforts. Last night the digger brought it down. 

There are not many left in Glen Road. Most of the houses have been condemned. Boilers, oil tanks contaminated by water and sewage and the residents have moved out. It’s going to be a long haul putting it all back together. 

That this has been reported world wide has done the residents the biggest favour of all as the government are embarrassed and no matter how much spin they try to put on it, it was their department and their contractor who authorised the hole in the wall and that’s where the majority of the water came from. That embarrassment will lead to action and now, finally after years of complaints and reports of lack of river management, finally money and personnel will be found to clear the river and its banks of debris and trees and flood defences will be repaired and made stronger. 

Interestingly, the hole last night was securely and tightly packed with ton bags of sand and covered with waterproof membrane. If only this had been done on a Monday night. But as government like to say, we are where we are. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by ecobob

[Non-Believer]

12 minutes ago, ecobob said:

Interestingly, the hole last night was securely and tightly packed with ton bags of sand and covered with waterproof membrane. If only this had been done on a Monday night. But as government like to say, we are where we are. 

Bit late now?!! No change there for IoMG. Although perhaps they're actually thinking ahead for a change with "Lorenzo" inbound. But is the new weir still going to be there? Won't anybody THINK of the salmon?!

Edited October 3, 2019 by Non-Believer
Extra bit

[ecobob]

15 hours ago, South cape said:

The wier was built by the electric railway , it was a patent built one that was supposed  to regulate the river flow and allow water to travel down a lade to a water tubine  to generate power for the tramway, some off the bits are still their , the stone building just up from the shore pub held the turbine and a sluice valve controlled the flow. it caused a flood in the 1935 ? flood which again caused serious damage on glen road 

In an attempt to share your post I may have reported it. If so then it was my fat fingers and nothing else. Apologies. 

[Uhtred]

6 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Manx Radio was oddly studio-bound during Tuesday's flooding - their way of reacting to the floods in Laxey was to send Dollin Mercer - down to the Tromode River.  Now that the Chief Minister has returned to us however, young Mr Mercer was allowed to accompany him to the Northern wilderness and even talk to the restless natives.  He actually made quite a good job of it (as I've said before the younger reporters seem less inclined to reduce every story, no matter how important, to five sentences) with a lot of interviews actually embedded in the piece, including a lot from residents who could actually say "I told you so" and had the evidence to prove it.

Quayle was there with his usual lack of self-reflection, mindless repeating cliches (at one point he really did assure us that "Lessons will be learned") and clearly deeply shocked when anyone suggested that there should be any consequences for anyone who had failed to do their job.  That's not how Manx government operates!

Perkins was very keen to denounce those who should have done something though less certain about who or what.  Certainly he doesn't seem to have been very assiduous in following up the various promises made in the past (I reckon he only asked a single question in Tynwald/Keys in the last year) and if he felt the way the Valley was being managed was leading to danger maybe he could have spoken to the DEFA member responsible for the Environment, a certain Martyn Perkins.

I posted many moons ago about the glaring difference between Bell’s media presence (ubiquitous) and Quayle’s far less visible persona. This perfectly illustrates why that is so. Quayle is condemned by his own mouth every time he opens it. He is a cliche/platitude generating machine with zero original thought, a very poor vocabulary and dreadful articulation. I speculated previously that his civil service handlers operated to a policy of deliberately withholding him from the media as damage limitation; they must cringe when they hear garbage like this.

Perkins is simply a vacuous clown.

[woody2]

"But the 1930 floods, while even more extensive in Laxey than 2019"

that would be down to the "climate emergency"

[TheTeapot]

I was away when the bus went down the river the other year, but was wondering if anyone at that time said the 'lessons will be learned' line, and whether they are still in their job?

[foxdaleliberationfront]

It appears that someone had the foresight to submit an FOI request to MUA requesting the topographical survey completed on Laxey River. Very timely. 

Although names etc. are redacted this may contain some interesting information: https://iom.icasework.com/servlet/servlets.getImg?ref=486709&bin=Y&auth=0&db=ZVD1ZPdIGvo%3D&access_token=Ikbh3R7BcrE-kOt5lzraNb7UWK29OU2mmlnXWI4HUxNSKIQ-zmwiUH5yd8LfnTw6.xAP3YTQaCnf_rk-XO6c4yg%3D%3D

 

While certain factors will have no doubt worsened the situation at Laxey, I can't help but think there is no real solution to this flood problem. It's essentially taking water from a massive upland drainage basin of a steep valley and forcing it through a man made narrow channel before it reaches the sea. I would be interested in seeing photos or drawings of the Glen Road area before it was developed - I would guess it was probably a flood plain. 

I feel extremely sorry for anyone caught up in the Laxey flooding but I don't know what can be done to stop it happening again. Certainly proper maintenance of river channels and clearing away all the old weirs and other disused mining/industrial crap from the channel would be a start towards reducing the risk. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by foxdaleliberationfront

[TheTeapot]

Thanks for posting that, interesting stuff. 

Quote

Laxey Woollen mill raised concerns over the starting position of the flood wall on the left bank immediately downstream of the confluence between the Laxey River and the Glen Roy River. The flood wall does not extend upstream to the bridge, leaving a large gap that could cause major flooding to property and businesses on Glen road.

 

[Derek Flint]

31 minutes ago, Uhtred said:

I posted many moons ago about the glaring difference between Bell’s media presence (ubiquitous) and Quayle’s far less visible persona. This perfectly illustrates why that is so. Quayle is condemned by his own mouth every time he opens it. He is a cliche/platitude generating machine with zero original thought, a very poor vocabulary and dreadful articulation. I speculated previously that his civil service handlers operated to a policy of deliberately withholding him from the media as damage limitation; they must cringe when they hear garbage like this.

Perkins is simply a vacuous clown.

So was Bell. Catch him on the hop and there was no substance to what he said. 

 

Just a thought, but now the wier has gone, where do all the broken trees now land? Where is the next bottleneck.....?

[foxdaleliberationfront]

As posted earlier, it looks like the river did a proper job back in 1930 too. Some interesting photos on the Mnh iMuseum. 

[Dave Hedgehog]

8 minutes ago, Derek Flint said:

Just a thought, but now the wier has gone, where do all the broken trees now land? Where is the next bottleneck.....?

Heysham