Storm Babet in our area of Suffolk

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Storm Babet which hit Britain on 19th October, caused huge amounts of damage in Scotland and other parts of the UK including where I live in the Suffolk area. Most of it was water damage, as it dumped huge rainfalls in several places. Met Office figures show between Thursday and Saturday morning, 79mm fell in Charsfield, Suffolk. That's a little over three inches in two days. The rain was even heavier further north. In Angus and Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, some areas had 200mm of rain.
The name Babet was selected by the Dutch weather agency KMNI - and was named after a woman who visited an open day at its headquarters and put her own name forward, with the additional reason "because I was born during a storm".

When the weather abated a little, I recorded some pictures in our area.


The view from the front of our bungalow showing how water encroached on our side of the river for the first time since we have been here - some 23 years. Luckily, the land slopes away from us as can be seen, so the water runs across the fields away from us. 


The local playing field where nobody was playing football today!


Anyone for a picnic? Another view on the playing field.


A walk into Hadleigh showed Bridge Street, which was too deep for me to wade through. A shame as I heard that the big building site beyond was under water.


Tinkers Lane is impassable. This is one of my regular walking routes, but not today.


Unfortunately, a lot of small animals such a chickens and Guinea pigs lost their lives as the river swept through this small yard. The bigger animals and the 30 odd geese managed to survive.


Another favourite walking route of mine is this waterside path - not today though!


Looking back toward Hadleigh on my way home.

Next day the morning weather changed, and we could see blue sky and sunshine! So, we wandered back toward Hadleigh and took some more images of the field with their retreating water line.



A couple of images taken just outside our village showing the ever so slightly retreating water line.
So, although it was quite spectacular, I hope we don't have more any time soon, as it caused a lot of people a huge amount of heartache. So, my record of this momentous storm.



Location: Hadleigh, Ipswich IP7, UK

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