Hastings Floods, oh yes, and Hastings Pier.

Well, following our second town centre flood this year (January blog), where water flooded out of this manhole cover (above), where is it?!? It now appears they couldn't/didn't fix a replacement manhole cover, and now it's fully tarmac. I shan't go into the possible resulting complications...😲

Of course, the drain opposite the Carlisle pub had been fixed, hadn't it? I'm shaking my head as this has been going on for ages (eg blog), and the drain that replaced the raised drain into the sea is often now below seawater, NB High Tides, and seawater just pushes back up the drain. Priory Meadow and much of the town centre used to be Hastings harbour, eg in 1066, thus much of it below seawater... I'm shaking my head now, Southern Water still don't seem to have figured all this out!

Oh yes, and Hastings Pier, the company that was running it, Lions Hastings Pier Ltd, ie the company owned by the owner of the Pier, went into administration earlier this year (blog). However, Gulzar, the owner, said that no way would the Pier close, only "over my dead body" he asserted (Sussex World), indeed, he has "£100 million in reserve to keep it open." Why hasn't he spent any money on the Pier for its upkeep then? Or for improvements? Or a new pavilion on it like the Friends of Hastings Pier (blog) planned for in their bid; just what was in that brown envelope?!?

And La Belle Vue, in the central pavilion, had to close down for now, sadly, although I believe they have plans to reopen in the future. It all looked so positive when I visited and had a few beers back in May (blog). I shan't go into the problems there, but no doubt having the excellent view obscured by stages, boxes and speakers didn't help for a restaurant called La Belle Vue. 

But La Belle Vue has merged with Casa de Pier (blog) in the remaining pavilion, and this is still open, pretty much all that was open on the Pier at the weekend...

Good luck to both businesses! 👍

Town Centre, Power Resupply Required!

Following on from yesterday's results of the previous night's deluge, and the most fire engines I've ever seen in one place (blog), now comes the clean up... etc...

The Fire & Rescue Service is still in attendance, notably a fire engine outside the cinema, apparently still pumping out water from Priory Meadow. Now though there are many UK Power Networks' vans (I've never seen so many of these either, not just those in the photograph, but in St Andrews Square too!) in the vicinity to replace the fire tenders, presumably to sort out electricity supplies. Indeed, they have even set up a temporary HQ in the Salvation Army building in St Andrews Square.

And yes, Priory Meadow is still closed, although a few businesses in Queens Road are open now, but not those with entrances in the shopping centre, it appears.

'Twas a Wee Bit Damp in Hastings This Morning...

You'll have unlikely missed it, but if you did, the town centre was a wee bit awash earlier today, after the copious amount of H2O hurled down from the sky overnight. Indeed, so much, that Priory Meadow and numerous other local businesses, all the way down to the seafront, were closed, for at least the day! I took a very short video, short, because you don't really need more than a few seconds to understand the situation (YouTube).

Of course it wasn't just in the town centre, but appears to have begun flowing down from Alexandra Park to the seafront, and has been reported by many media outlets (eg ITV), and even an eel was spotted swimming in the town centre (MSN)!

Thankfully there are fewer East Sussex Fire & Rescue vehicles in town now.👍

Yet Another Water Leak!

Walking down behind Jempsons, on my way to the Old Town early this morning, and I quipped to the gentleman cleaning the windows of Jempsons "When did a river start flowing down here?!?" OK...

This is where it flowed from, and the drains couldn't cope with the deluge, but the river came from this lake, by the Carlisle... I thought we had a similar problem earlier this year, but, looking back, it was actually a year ago in December 2017, sort it out for good this time Southern Water, please!

New Bypass floods!

Yesterday, Hastings Police reported on twitter that local roads, including the new A21 bypass, were effected by flooding, and the weather forecast for the next 2 days suggests this may get worse... 

So, as they ask, "please drive carefully."