Floods
As readers of this blog will know, many parts of Britain have had to deal with serious flooding. The North-East of Scotland had, until about a week ago, largely escaped the heavy rain and wind that caused such damage elsewhere, but over recent days that changed dramatically. By the weekend many towns and rural communities had been affected. The rather pretty little town of Ballater (near Balmoral Castle), for example, has been so badly flooded that some are wondering whether it can ever be restored to its prior state.
My own neighbourhood has not fared well. We live outside the village of Tarves, and the little road from our house was by Friday submerged, though still passable with care.
Not far away, the river Ythan burst its banks in the village of Methlick.
The actual river is on the left, above – the large expanse of water on the right is a flooded field, and the houses on the far right were at one stage about three feet under water.
One other feature of the floods has been the flow of unexpected items in the torrents caused by the floods. In one location two mobile homes were dumped by the flow of water in a person’s back garden, having been pushed over the garden wall; sitting on top of one of them was a BMW car! In the photo below the car was carried along by the water and left stranded on the edge of a flooded field.
It is to be hoped that the weather will now settle down – there has already been too much damage.
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University Blog 
January 11, 2016 at 1:37 pm
If you have an archaeology department those floods are a god send for finding early areas of settlement. Not for our ancestors to be stupid enough to build homes on flood plains. A gene lost I feel.
January 11, 2016 at 1:44 pm
An interesting observation. There is, about 500 yards from our house, a prehistoric stone circle. It was erected on a hill. Much of the land around it is just now flooded.
January 11, 2016 at 4:42 pm
Interesting contrast between the first and second photo, while the first is perfectly ‘coherent’ (dark tones apt for a natural calamity),the light blue sky – reflected in the water – almost convey an impression of serenity (the calm after the tempest).
In general, most people seem to be fascinated by images of natural disasters, my theory is that through visual documentation we try to attach meaning to tragedy, no matter how random and inexplicable the event is. Tragedies, it is commonly said, bring people together, see the reaffirmation of the ‘community spirit’ in the caption of one of the pics at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-35021153
and/or reaffirm national values, see last pic at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-35028712