Yesterday i uploaded this photo of a bad rain storm that hit my town.  When it was pouring i thought to myself this is really bad and could be so dangerous.  Little did i know what was about to happen!

We live in a town called Bridgwater which was built around a river called the River Parrett.  If i remember my history lessons correctly in the medieval times the town was a major transport route via water and we even still have the docks here though mostly dormant and unloved these days.  The town was built around it and as these things go the town grew and evolved into what it is today (which to be honest is not much) Anyway the river is old and so are the walls around it.
During the storm my back garden was like a lake as we have concrete slabs and bricks instead of grass so the drains were the only place the water could go and slowly!
This was happening all over the town center with drains having trouble dealing with the amount of water pouring into them so it had to find somewhere to go.  Unfortunately it did find somewhere and suddenly disappeared down by apart of the river, then part of the wall cracked.  Luckily it was a long time before the wall and part of the road fell into the river and that part of the street does not have many people walking along it so the emergency services shut off the area before that happened and only a little flooding has happened so far.
Bridges and roads were shut off and then after a phone call from my mother in law saying people and businesses were being evacuated and i got in a panic as we live relatively close to it all, literally only a minute walk.  Luckily i rang my dad and he assured me that when we bought the house we found out we are not in the flood zone so i was most relieved.  Now we just have to wait and see whats going to happen. Here are some photos, video and more info [link] and[link]

Now then if that wasn't bad enough a few hours later a real tragedy happened on the motorway between our town and the next, only a ten minute drive from our house.  How it happened to begin with is still pretty sketchy at this time maybe it was the fog and rain, no one knows yet and it being dark at 8:30pm did not help matters but there was a 27 vehicle pile up.  Several cars and lorries all crashed into one another causing fire, chaos and so far around 12 deaths and 43 injuries, witnesses say it was like one huge fireball.   
The emergency services have been there all night and the motorway shut off for at least 24 hours.  Some vehicles are so badly damaged and mangled up together you can not tell where one vehicle begins and another ends.  
When i put on the news this morning there were still injured at the seen several hours after the event trapped.  Even more disturbing to me was the dead are still there too, that just seems so horrible to me that bodies are still laying on the road side or in burnt out cars and lorries, it feels so sad to me but things are that bad they can not move them or the the people with more minor injuries yet.  Several of the people injured have such severe injuries they could be forever life changing.  the elderly and people with young children seem to be stranded there also.   More info, photos and video here [link] and  [link]

That is not all! Once a year the Carnival comes to town, it is like the Fair, the biggest in the country and the towns name sign actually reads "Bridgwater, the historic home of carnival" more info [link] Typical that day was also yesterday, so that meant even more chaos and road closures for the town on top of the flooding and pile up.  Despite all this it still went ahead, minus the fireworks display as the emergency services do that and they were busy with the crash and wall.  The usual route had to be changed as it usually goes over the bridge right next to where the wall collapsed.  From the sounds of it (i live in the middle of the route of the Carnival) the music and lights from the Carnival Carts were blaring and the crowds were laughing and having a great time.   

The Carnival had already started by the time the motorway crash happened but even if it did happen before they probably would have still gone ahead of it, i don't know but that seems so disrespectful to me, everything is all about money these days and no way would they have postponed it.

My thoughts go out to the owners of the homes that flooded and of course to the people involved and effected by the motorway tragedy.  R.I.P.

This years Carnival sure is one to remember, it's just a great shame it's going to be for this.