Charis’s earlier blog around resilience and climate change has got me thinking and looking back at the flood impact of last Nov around my square mile. The impact of the flooding has been catastrophic not just in terms of infrastructure but on people i know. We have lost quite a few road and foot bridges in the area. But for me what has brought it home was the

the walls and stone riverbanks ripped out in Nov. Meirion’s house in the background. His parking space is now a few miles down the river

impact on Meirion, Iolo, Catrin, Adrian and many friends and neighbours. Most of whom did not spend Xmas at home because their houses are still drying out.

Getting back to resilience and the good old engineering solution. Looking at the damage in the area it is obvious that if it was built-in the C19 a lot of it is now not there and has been ripped out by the force of the impact. Some of the bridges such as the one we visited in Llanberis last week were built quite a bit earlier. Upgrading or adapting should we say is a non-starter because of the scale and cost. I have 8″ clay pipes under the road in front of my house and the water in front of the house was near on a meter deep (my house is 1.02 meter above the road!). the flooding on the road is getting worse and worse. Not sure what the solution is and maintenance probably has something to do with it (the stone in the drain in front of the house is now not helping)

No solutions just an observation. i have a feeling that we will be in the “suck it and see” school of adaptation and then fix it when its broken. The LA wont be changing the half a mile of clay pipe drain near my house in the near future. Too busy replacing (we hope) many of the bridges we have lost. Have a feeling its the people who will be becoming resilient!

whats left of the old packhorse bridge above Llanberis. This was very old. 50m of wall also having gone

My kids favorite path through what they call the ‘jungle’ closed (the old clapper footbridge bridge was over-topped and this is 3m above the river). Damage in the middle of the village and work started on the road bridge