On Thursday 26th September, Beech Lane flooded to the point that cars and pedestrians could not cross or drive through, and many found themselves without a safe route home.
In the week of 23rd to 29th of September, major thunder and heavy rainstorms plagued southern England.
In particular, the flooding in Bedfordshire was extreme and left many schools and roads closed.
Here in Earley and Reading, we also faced the effect of the rain and some roads were flooded, including the very busy and useful Beech Lane, that connects the main road Rushey Way and Wilderness Road.
The time of the flooding inconvenienced the students from both Maiden Erlegh Secondary School and Aldryngton Primary School as they were walking home at around 3-4 pm.
A year 10 student who left school late after a club faced the peak of the flooding on Beech Lane.
She said, ‘I couldn’t even see the pavement’ because of how murky and high the water levels were.
She had to go home the long way and witnessed cars in the trough of the flood ‘helpless to go anywhere’ – cars and people alike had to either reverse or dangerously plunge through.
‘My friend decided to leg it and go straight through the pool’ – ‘her shoes were ruined when I saw her the next day’.
Another students’ club had been cancelled and they had been sent home due to the ‘electrical hazard’ because of the leaks in the computer rooms.
‘Not even batman could have saved us from the giant lake we found in the corridor’.
Considering that small children and parents had to wade their way home, on top of the fact that it was late afternoon and early rush hours, the flooding of Beech Lane was disastrous and caused chaos in Lower Earley.
The next day, on Friday the 27th September, the flooding had very fortunately been taken care of and people could safely get to and from their schools and works again.
