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Following the massive storm damage of January 2005, the floods of the past week are the most extensive ever recorded.  Nearly two feet of water has fallen in the Borrowdale valley over the past few days, flowed through Keswick and into Bassenthwaite, and from there through Cockermouth and Workington as seen in all the press coverage of this 'Biblical-scale' event.

The flood waters in the town were higher than in 2005.  All the flood prevention barriers were over-run.  Those owners who had installed flood gates to their houses found them ineffectual.  Around 50 households have been flooded out of their homes - the same households that spend a year in temporary accommodation last time around.

There were some remarkable scenes:

• a wall of river water cascading over the flood wall at High Hill, with a severe risk of the wall collapsing and sweeeping away the old houses across the road;
• a Tesco delivery van floating for 24 hours at the Tithebarn Street intersection;
• the continued closure of two main bridges into the town, one of which is probably structurally damaged at High Hill
• the sheer power and speed of the river water; it's amazing that more people were not killed
• Derwentwater extending over the Borrowdale road;
• the landslides that have removed the Catbells terrace road.

For the individual households and businesses affected, this is a catastropic event.  Piles of debris in front gardens bear witness to the scale of personal losses involved.  With the supermarket flooded and powerless, there was a shortage of food for a time.  Staff could not get to work.  And travel disruption throughout North Cumbria will continue for a very long time to come.

Personally, my house was not flooded although it is very damp, with water ingress through some windows and roof ridge that has never happened before.