After the floods: flotsam, rubbish, clearing up

On the Sunday after the flood, the sun came out. Everyone smiled. The water in the Burn was back within its concrete banks and ran clear as the proverbial Sunday tea in its delicate china cup. But strange things lurked within:And strange things lay strewn about the future Community Garden, such as a long piece of roundwood that must have come drifting down on the torrent:Nothing much happened on Monday. The ground was sodden. On Tuesday, however, several strong men in shiny overalls appeared like so many large and magical garden gnomes and pulled rubbish out of the Black Lynn (they also began to set the stakes for the new fence that should protect the garden from vandals and floods):
Among the rubbish were countless plastic bottles and plastic bags; pieces of wood of all sizes; a provisional ladder aka plank with slats nailed across; a yellow plastic object that may once have been a ball; a black rubbery thing that vaguely resembled a car seat; the five-legged bottom of an office chair; sundry plastic crates and plastic containers; a huge sheet of clear plastic ... ... a traffic cone; a no-parking traffic cone; a traffic signal warning of a construction site (not in the photo); more planking; thick black rubber sheeting ...
... indiscriminately, the raging Black Lynn had torn it down her track; indiscriminately, the sun shone on it all. But it's a skip-full of rubbish (or useful raw material, if recycled properly).

Flood Event no. 3 in just two weeks -- the worst in 40 years

Someone in this area told your reporter that this past Saturday, October 25, 2008, saw the worst floods in the area in about 40 years. In this area, the situation was not helped by a skipload of junk tossed into the burn or dragged down by the raging torrent the Black Lynn had transformed into. Quite impressive. See for yourselves:
The above looks almost innocent, but these are supposed to be drying greens:
And that's supposed to be a lane:
Your reporter is sure everyone could have done without this water feature just below the future Community Gardens:A little further downstream, below the culvert alongside the Nelson Road houses, this is what the Black Lynn looked like:Luckily for everyone, the rain subsided shortly after your reporter took this photo. There was about an inch of clearance. One dreads to think of what would have happened if the fence upstream had given and all water collected above it had come down in one great rush ...

... and more flooding: is the garden project going down the drain?

Hello again
Neighbours have been telling your reporter that they have never seen such flooding in this area, ever. Something needs to be done because the Black Lynn is yet again way above and beyond its narrow concrete channel.
That doesn't mean that this area is the only one affected -- Oban town centre has had quite a bit of flooding, as have many regions all over Argyll and Western Scotland. However, this is the Lynnside Garden Project and therefore the focus is here.
Today's photos, taken shortly after 9:30AM this Saturday, October 25, 2008:

Photos © Margaret Powell-Joss, Oct. 2008

It's bad, and there's no sign of the rain abating.

... and another, much bigger flood event...

Your reporter hates to be right in her predictions, but she is. And has these images taken on October 23, 2008, to show what happened during the previous night and morning. Most of the future community garden area has now been flooded for hours. Flooding must have started in the night and the river was in spate well before dawn.
This was the situation shortly after 9AM -- in addition to the footbridge across the burn creating an obstacle to the water, the fence at the bottom of the garden is blocking outflow. The work done by the Employability team virtually destroyed, the topsoil being washed away.Nature's resilience is probably greater than ours: three mallards have since then taken up "residence" and are happily scoffing the nutritious food the flood has washed up -- at the bottom of the garden fence of the terrace of flats along Miller Road.
Two hours later, the water has actually come through the fence and into the private gardens/drying greens. The car across the burn looks uncomfortably close to the water's edge...
At midday the water continued to rage down the concrete channel, maximum water level yet to come. And another such rainfall is just around the corner (or heading in from the Atlantic, expected to make landfall Friday night). It will be interesting to see what happens...

... during and after a flood event

Neighbours had warned that parts of the garden territory would get flooded. Early on October 10, 2008, that's what happened.
Even on the best of days, the low-lying culverts below the wee pedestrian bridge across the burn tend to skim the top of the water (enlarge the photos by clicking on them):

Aug. 2008

On October 8, 2008, this is what the burn looked like as it ran in its concrete trough next to the newly-cleared area of the Community Garden:

Oct. 8, 2008

A pretty wee stream with crystal-clear, tea-coloured water. The weather was lovely. Then followed a night and a day and another night of heavy rain, with this result:

Oct. 10, 2008

Your reporter was woken by the noise of the angry burn. Something in its rushing had changed, however, and she got her camera out. Above, you can see water just beginning to seep across the lane at the west end of the garden grounds. Time: 06:17AM.
A little over an hour later the water had filled the lane up to the bend before it goes up to the steps, the bottom end of the community garden-to-be was flooded, and water was rushing across the car park and back into the burn below the wee pedestrian bridge:

Your reporter is not sure she'd feel all that comfortable living in one of the houses next to the Black Lynn...

At 08:20, the lane was still impassable -- quite a few people had to turn back and take the long way round. At least it had stopped raining and the water was no longer rising. In fact, it was beginning to recede.

By 09:30, the water-level was significantly reduced and three mallards were having a ball paddling about their new 'lake':

By 2:30PM, the stream was back inside its narrow concrete canal and the pool had shrunk to a puddle that was no longer worthy of the mallards' attention.

It will happen again -- that much seems certain given the location of the culvert(s) beneath the concrete slab across the Black Lynn.

We look forward to receiving your comments.

... during

Welcome back!
Thank you for your continued interest in the Lynnside Garden Project.
Here's a wee reminder of what the top end of the garden looked like before the workers moved in to clear out the weeds and rubbish:

© Photo: Gillian McInnes, Sept. 2008

The same place after the initial clearing:

© Photo: Gillian McInnes, Sept. 2008

Clearing work actually began shortly after 9AM on September 11, 2008:

Progress -- about two hours later:

Another hour later, just before lunch:

The men from the Employability team working hard to clear weeds and rubbish:

© Photo: Gillian McInnes, Sept. 2008