Coping with severe weather Summer 2012

What a wet one!

We have coped with rain and mud before but never on this scale.  During the summer it was not just the volume of rain but the fact that it rained nearly every day that caused so many problems.  The previous wet year was 2007 where torrential downpours caused flooding all down the Severn Valley from Worcester to Gloucester, but there were several days of sunshine between the rain showers and this allowed everything to drain and dry out.  This time there really wasn’t much of a let up – it was relentless.

We have the good fortune to have the most beautiful of fields with a large variety of unusual trees and shrubs, but we also have the misfortune to have a heavy clay surface that doesn’t drain well.  Despite careful management of wheeled traffic it wasn’t long before the major walkways were getting churned up.  We knew we were in for a wet summer and that the problem would not go away of its own accord so it was a question of how best do we manage the situation.  We pride ourselves on our flexibility and being able to adapt to whatever nature throws at us so this was just a challenge to rise to.

Our first solution during set up was to make a ring road round the village green area with coconut matting. We called it the ‘M25’ and made everyone use it and walking on grass nearby was forbidden.  This worked really well and the site stayed relatively green and mud free. The most heavily trodden area was treated to a walkway of pallets, and the obvious name for this was ‘cross-rail’.  We extended the coconut matting to the other major paths and this worked until the first conference when the shear numbers of people walking on the matting drove it into the mud underneath.  More pallets were ordered from the ever benificent plant nursery next door and more walkways were made until all the major paths were covered by over 200 pallets and coconut matting.  The site still retained charm but of a different sort than before.  We carried on hosting conferences despite the weather.

Some of our delegates found the situation more difficult than they expected but picked up on the ‘Dunkirk spirit’ of our volunteers and had a positive experience. There were moments when we thought perhaps we should cancel the events but that seemed like giving up and a bit of a cop out.  It would also have ruined our 100% record of delivering our service of outdoor events.  It is something we are proud of.

There are also other considerations.  The extremes of weather we are now experiencing

The River Teme burst its banks – again

are being caused by climate change – probably man-made or at least with human factors exacerbating the problem.  According to even the most optimistic expert, the situation is likely to get more extreme. The River Teme has burst its banks 3 times during the last 5 summers, something it only previously did occasionally during winter. If we had decided to give up and give in now – how are we going to manage to cope with greater extremes in the future? We are all going to have to find new ways of living, operating and adjusting to the unfolding situation. Flexibility, cooperation and strength of character coupled with a can-do approach is going to become ever more important over the next few years.

You would think that being outdoors in all that rain day after day would have caused severe depression amongst our volunteer workforce.  While there were times when some of us were fed up, the majority seemed to thrive on it.  There was a strong community spirit that bound us altogether and carried us through.  Our volunteers were amazing, often getting covered in mud and doing horrible messy, wet jobs to keep things going, but still smiling.  They even wrote and performed a song about it called ‘It rained’  If you click on this link you can see what life was like for the volunteers during set up and the wonderful smiling faces.  Thanks to Tom of Norfolk for the filming and to Tom of Wood for the song.

Despite having coped well this summer we really do hope that next year we will have a dry summer!

 

The only feasible fashion for summer 2012