I finished my paper after an all-nighter and went to my parents in Sheffield to relax and collect some of my books and junk. But I have spent the last day cut off without electricity due to flooding. i JUS

What a nightmare! At least I managed to get the one train leaving in the morning (after three cancellations!) to Manchester. The poor people wanting to go elsewhere - well, sorry but no trains leaving Sheffield today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6239782.stm

glad you're back. hope your home isn't flooded. why do places flood? where are the geographers?

The folks house is okay - but my sister sat her A level exam in a flooded college with torrential rain drumming down on the roof! She had to walk home in waist high water!

think its something to do with rain and stuff

because there is to much water.



Ok, a more detailed geographer explanation:
Places flood of course because there is indeed to much water. In this case it was rain. At one point during the rainfall the soil cannot take up any more water as it is basically saturated, this leads to surface runoff; in todays case with barely any free soils but loads of sealed surfaces (roads, houses etc) the runoff starts immediatelly. This surface runoff should be collected in drainages; however, this tend to get blocked or are not build to deal with that much water.

The water collects on the lowest point and as it can neither go in the drainage nor filter in the ground it stays there - normally as puddles then as big puddles, bigger buddles.... (one reason why in former times there were not as many flooding as there were more fields, forests etc and not the sealed surfaces of today). The other component is that all the water from the drainage goes into the rivers which are not free flowing through an open landscape but in cannals. Therefore the flow late increases as more water flows through a defined space and the higher pressure can break damms, walls etc and the water finds some space for itself.
enough geography?
The other factor is that

It floods because God thinks we need a bath

I just saw Sheffield was flooded on the morning news here (along with vital information about Paris Hilton leaving prison). I thought of H and I am sure other people have mentioned being from Sheffield here - hope you are all okay.

Remember, don't go in flood water unless it is absolutely necessary - it is filthy stuff. Everything you see on the ground on a normal day and think "gross" at, is now floating in that water. Eewww.