The River Severn has risen to meet the trees in Shropshire following Storm Claudia, which brought torrential rain across the Welsh Marches. All ditches, drains and brooks from the hills of mid-Wales to Shrewsbury have burst with runoff, turning the river into a deadly torrent.
Standing on the Frankwell footbridge, observers watched the swollen river swirl with dark energy. The water's surface is pitted and wrinkled, with vortices and gullies formed by huge energies beneath. No mallards surf the flow, and birds keep their distance, hiding in the stark vegetation above the waterline.
The floods have spilled over into fields and car parks, turning roads and hedges into submerged obstacles. The River Severn casts its shadow across the land, with recent storms growing in strength and frequency. The flood's power appears to be increasing, leaving little effect from any barriers people have put in its way.
As the river rises, shadows cast by figures on the bridge appear as doppelgangers in the golden branches of willows. These uncanny reflections seem to watch the river, mirroring the strange, indifferent power of the flood itself.
