Wednesday 31 October 2007

The Battle of the Bulge....

A policeman stood in the road, his fluorescent jacket glowing in my headlights. He waved me to stop. I awaited the usual sarcastic remark, ("Any faster sonny and you'll travel back in time") but no. "You can't go any further, the roads bulging". That was a new one... I nipped through the car parks eager to film the 'bulging' road. The police were there on mass as well as a fire engine. The bulge was creaking and groaning. Then water began to fill the street.
It was time to back off. There was a distant rumble like an underground train, accompanied with the sound of rocks clonking together as you would hear on a rough beach.

It erupted through the surface scattering tarmac asunder.


The water board turned up. Professional as ever, a stop cock handle was eventually found....under a pile of sand in the back of the lorry!

Turning the metal pole was hard work and even the traffic police had a go at playing 'merry-go-round'.

It was a little unclear which way it should be turned. The fountain got bigger and bigger.



They tried it the other way, just in case. More and more water spurted out and the guy from the water board looked as if he wanted to go home.
Convinced that 'clockwise' was the direction to go, he put his back into it.





Things started to get alarming as boulders began to fly out of the hole, crashing to the ground with a thud.






To his credit the workman stood his ground, sure that he was turning the tap in the right direction, in spite of the ever towering geyser.




The geyser began to subside, to the relief of the emergency crews. It had been a tough old night standing watching, playing 'merry-go-round' and filming it all on their mobile phones. We can only hope all the bad criminal people were having a night off too.


The waters flooded several shops, the cellars of the local fish restaurant (the stock will probably survive flood damage), and the local car parks. By 4am all the excitement was over and it was time for bed, so I went too.....








15 comments:

LesleyinNM said...

That is pretty cool! Probably not for the shops that were flooded though.

photowannabe said...

Great photojournalism. A gyser made for some interesting footage.

Mike said...

What a mess. Where did this happen?

JLee said...

Oh my God!! The things you come across...great work capturing it!

Madwag said...

I would have loved to see that! How cool! Good video and pics!

Stephanie Faris said...

Wherever that is, I want to go there. I love English Tudor buildings and, water or not, it just looks charming!

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

great coverage barkfoot, i lived on the A2 during its collape and it was the best thing that ever happened to the residents. Birds sang, parking became availible, neighbours were talking. Hope its the same for you
SBW

Elisa...life as we know it. said...

Good footage, my favourite bit has to be the policeman playing merry-go -round....you should have put that bit to music!

"M2" said...

quite cool
don't they know the "lefty lucy, righty tighty" rule up there??

thanks for todays comment
I have another pot cooking

Lavender said...

I havent laughed so hard in yonks - the sight of the men going around and around and around just - sorry - still laughing here just thinking of it....
You were certinally in the right spot at the right time Mate!

Annabelle said...

That sounds like a loads of fun. Thanks for the visit and comment on my blog. I'm already enjoying my job and all I've done is clean drains out! This place was let go by the old woman who lived there with her butler. They lived there in two rooms and the kitchens while the rest of the place fell apart and was vandalised. I bet it was a real nice place once upon a time. I have some photo's from inside the house as well which I will post as time goes on.

Barkfoot said...

Lesley - These premises get flooded all the while because they're built on the bed of an old pool. They're used to it and put there stock up out of harms way.
Mike - This is in Sutton Coldfield, it's caused traffic mayhem.
Stephanie - We have a lot of the Tudor look, including most of the houses on my road, they look lovely but need a lot of painting though.

kerri said...

We had the same thing happen in London this week, the sink hole it created was 9 metres by 14 metres, it knocked out power to all the downtown core. It flooded a few businesses, a bank was hardest hit.
Great photos. ;)

Barkfoot said...

Kerri - You threw me at first, I was thinking that you were in London England. I had to go and look it up, I hadn't even heard of the London in Ontario, let alone that there was another River Thames (you learn something new everyday!) Thanks...

4D said...

A water show on your street!

Keep smilin!