Monday, 19 March 2007

England is drowning and I live by the river

I got home on Sunday night, after a disappointing hockey game (Chieftains lost 5 - nil) and wondered why there was a torch on my bed. I didn't think too much of it at first, and then I ran into my Dad.

There had been a message earlier the evening, in a phone call from the Environmental Agency. The phone call was a flood warning, the risk had been raised from "flood watch" (flooding of low lying land and roads is expected) to "flood danger" (flooding of homes and businesses is expected) -- there was an imminent danger of a flood.

My dad had got bags of sand out of the garage to block the doors with, and had prepared various items like torches, candles and a camping stove. He said that he'd stay up until midnight (high tide was expected about 11.30) and that he would wake me up if and when the water came. I wondered if I would first hear the flood warning siren -- the eerie rise and fall of an air raid siren.

I woke up work at 6am this morning with a headache. But no flood. The situation has been updated to "all clear", how long for I don't know.

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