The barriers are up .....

The River Severn rises somewhere in the hills of North Wales. When they experience constant, heavy rain for a while the water gathers, focuses, and swells the source of the river. After approximately two days this increasing volume of water will have made its way south to here, Bewdley (Worcestershire) and on beyond, until it dissipates in the Severn Estuary beyond Bristol.
Bewdley has historically been very prone to flooding, with some VERY high level inundations, notably in 1947 and 2000. The town's flood defences were engineered and made available for installation by the Environment Agency at very short notice. This is one of those occasions, and it's amazing to see just how high the river has risen in a short time.