At the start of this week I was in my office at the University of Stirling and received an alarming e-mail from Paul Gunn, who is a Natural Communities Apprentice, and one of the fellow apprentices I share my TCV office with in Stirling.
Unfortunately the e-mail was not good news! Over the weekend there had been heavy rain, which had found it’s way in through a weak point in the roof and flooded our office and the office below. However out of both the offices affected, I was the only person that had any belongings in the floods path, and ironically, I am the only person in the building that works in flood management! This irony was not lost on Paul when he entered the room on Monday to find an inch of water beside my desk and a soggy box of flood engagement material with “Prepare for flooding!” written on the front!
The following day when I visited my TCV office to assess the flood damage I was greeted by post it notes over light switches warning me not to turn the lights on, a dehumidifier that sounds like a diesel generator and the smell of old sports socks. Upon reaching my desk, I find all that is left of my once extensive array of posters, leaflets and flood engagement material, is just a handful of SEPA leaflets.
The rest of the week, I have been working from a different room in TCV, because the smell upstairs is still quite bad and so is the noise of the dehumidifier. I have spent so long watching the Allan Water river and weather reports, waiting for a flood event in my catchment in what has been a very dry year so far, that I never even considered flooding would affect me from a roof leak!
Oh well, that’s another lesson learned as the Natural Flood Management Apprentice, flooding can come from above also! I hope you enjoy the pictures, and on a more serious note, I hope you can get an idea of how much damage an unattended roof leak over one weekend can cause. Hope you all stay safe, and flood aware and prepared over the festive period!
SEPA’s flooding/floodline section in the link here, is a very good resource if you are concerned at any point that you may be at flood risk from coastal or river flooding. Unfortunately they can’t forecast roof leaks, but definitely still worth checking out!
I would also like to thank Paul for saving what he could of my flood damaged belongings!
Enjoy the pictures and Merry Christmas!
Post it note on light switch
Dehumidifier, flooded area and my desk in the top left of the picture
Where the flood water came from in the upstairs office beside my desk
All that is left of my flood engagement material
The damage to the roof in the downstairs office
Downstairs office and the Christmas tree, which was another victim of the flood.