To feel that the South West has been abandoned (long and ranty)

[zeezeek]

My family still live in Cornwall and they have been completely battered by the wind and the rain for weeks now. Last night they had to be evacuated from their house. The main train line down to Cornwall (in fact also half of Devon) is completely destroyed and a lot of prime agricultural land in Somerset is under water.

People are losing their livelihoods and they have been lucky that there have been no loss of life. In a region where there is already high unemployment - the impact on the farming, fishing and tourist industries will just make the situation worse. Freight trains can no longer get down past Exeter.

The EA are effectively blaming the poor buggers who are affected by this and seemingly forgetting that people and homes are also affected. The government doesn't give a shit and the Environment minister didn't even bother taking a pair of wellington boots with him on his photo opp visit. Our future King made silly comments about how a disaster beings people together while his waste of space daughter in law spends taxpayers money jetting off to the Caribbean. Comments in sensible, intelligent newspapers are also blaming people for daring to live on a flood plain (which has never flooded to this extent) and by the sea.

I know that I am BU, but tonight - when my parents are still not allowed home and my brother has had his fishing boat sunk - I am feeling very, very pissed off with the media who seems to be making such a big deal out of a 2 day tube strike - there are buses.

Sorry, but needed to vent. Have nothing against Londoners - I lived there for years.

[Evilwater]

OP, we are always left behind. So cross, at all this damage. How many years have we told, ask things to be done and it hasn't.

They even said it was ok to build on the local flood plain.

[zeezeek]

paperlantern - ok, you go down to Cornwall tonight and tell my parents and my brother that lessons have been learnt and the government hasn't done a bad job. I mean, are you for real??? In the SW we have been telling people about this threat for YEARS and nothing was done and now THEY are the ones picking up the pieces.

But as long as it is all nice and pretty again in time for your holidays/mini-breaks then never mind. Oh and go ahead and complain that everything is more expensive this year....go on, I dare you.

[FyreFly]

As bad as the flooding is, bugger all can be done until the rain stops and everything dries up a bit. Until then, there's very very little that anyone can do, be they government, military, media or otherwise, to alleviate the situation. At the moment it's about waiting it out and doing as much damage limitation as is possible - in weather this bad, there's not a lot that will stop the water.

I don't honestly bellieve anyone up at the Environment Agency has been rubbing their hands with glee at this situation and delighting in how their master plan of no dredging has come off. As some posters have said upthread, this weather is truly exceptional - how were authorities meant to plan for it?

If nothing is done and no lessons learnt after the water has receded, then that will be an utter disgrace. Once things can be put in order, serious action has to be taken.

[LessMissAbs]

I don't agree Paperlantern The Netherlands copes perfectly well, along with Northern France and Belgium. If the technology is there to avoid flooding, and lets face it, its been around for decades, what is the problem in using it? I'm assuming the people of the south west still play plenty of tax!

Its nothing to do with hindsight and everything to do with not even bothering to maintain existing flood defences. Which is basically incompetence. These floods were entirely avoidable, apart from the breaches in the sea wall.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Paperlantern, it's actually been a really shit response. Villages cut off since Christmas? That's rubbish.

I don't know when they will be able to rebuild the railway, the forecast is awful, really awful. But once they start, perhaps they can take a leaf out of Icelands book who managed to rebuild part of their ring road which was washed away by a glacial flood in about 3 weeks.

[FrontForward]

I don't blame the weather or the media. I blame a lack of funding to address fundamental environmental issues. Yes the train line is vulnerable. Washed away last year and this year and probably next year. So der.... Fix it. River dredging not done.

Ignoring these issues because of 'funding' when they are spending vast sums or a high speed rail link between two affluent cities or can take the country to war ...people are living without access to healthcare, supermarkets, schools in the SW. Out of sight? Lovely countryside so let them struggle? Whatever your reasons for turning away from the issue or shrugging it off as an insurance claim???? (It's livelihoods not bloody furniture???). It is part of the UK?..people cannot just emigrate out of the SW. We're not talking one isolated episode of environmental damage. It's prolonged far reaching and serious.

[crashbangboom]

As long as its OK for Cameron to come and sun himself on his jollies.....

[AndHarry]

I don't live in the SW but my family is in Somerset and it is very frustrating that the government top brass seemed to have forgotten that the flood water didn't just go away again after Christmas. The EA employees on the ground have been working day and night but where's the military?! Surely they should have been deployed by now. The SW isn't exactly huge and logistically challenging compared to their usual hangouts

Listening to R4, it did annoy me when someone or other was going on about farmers needing to be willing to flood their land to protect houses. Fine if you're breeding water buffalo or whatnot but you can't just 'accept' that your crop fields will be flooded for months during sowing season.

[BoffinMum]

We need to get Dan Snow in there to rescue everyone, like he was trying to during the ash cloud with his small boats offensive,

[CrispyFB]

YANBU. As somebody brought up in Cornwall (been living in London and surrounds for over a decade now, DH works in central London) with family still down there, I totally get where you're coming from.

Today at least there are NO rail replacement buses to get you past Taunton according to National Rail. Hopefully when things settle a bit that will change, but wow, I feel for people who were intending to travel in either direction through Dawlish today. At least those stranded in London have lots of hotels to choose from and probably offices to sleep in.

Not that DH had any issue - his tube (Victoria line) seemed to run as normal today! And central London is walkable just about if you need to get to a mainline station. Unlike walking from Taunton to, uh, Penzance.

[mateysmum]

I'm afraid there's a real attitude in London (sweeping generalisation alert) that the countryside is just there as some sort of rural theme park for urban weekenders. Don't dredge the river in case it harms the little baby voles - how many thousands of creatures have died in these floods!

Let the fields flood to protect the towns. So who will compensate the farmers whose grass and crops are lying dead under the water and who are selling their cattle because they have no grazing.

[Mrsmorton]

What will the military do? Genuine question, what can they do to make the situation better? Also, I'm afraid there's not a surfeit of military personnel at the moment, with the redundancies and what have you reducing their numbers and morale so dramatically.

[Plomino]

I live in the middle of the fens in rural Norfolk , which are exactly the same as the Somerset Levels . When we had our tidal surge not that long ago , we were right on target to be flooded out , to the extent of having to make evacuation plans , arranging to move horses to other people's yards , and possibly accepting other people's animals depending on where the water went . In fact we ended up with two extra dogs overnight from the evacuated RSPCA kennels , and a shed load of chickens . And yet , even though the rivers did burst, and others did get flooded out , the damage wasn't anything like as great . We are fortunate here , that our local EA dredges religiously every year , and as we have a river as a boundary , are required to pay the internal drainage board a sum of money every year to pay for them to do so , and have to leave the last 9 metres of our land by the river clear so the digger can get there . So if they can manage it up here , with virtually identical geography , why didn't they do it for the Levels ? Is it because it's out of sight , out of mind ? Even though vast amounts of our food are going to sky rocket in price because of it ?

[NinjaPenguin]

I live in London right now, but it is all over the news. The government could have done much more- not preventing flooding but using dredging and putting more money and work into sorting it out. There's things like high speed rails and fancy stuff being built by the government which sounds impressive but helps no one, and yet I don't think that everything which could be done (sensibly) to help is being done.

[mateysmum]

Mrsmorton, not only can the military provide organisation and leadership - sadly lacking at the moment but they have vehicles that could move people and livestock. They have manpower to help with sandbags and earth defence building

No shortage of military here we have 40 Commando in Taunton and Royal Naval air station at Yeovil.

[Changebagsandgladrags]

I don't think people in the SW are making it any easier by grumping about the London tube strike being on the news.

It is horrendous what has happened in the SW. Ok no, we cannot help the weather, but mismanagement has contributed to a large degree, agreed.

It is headline news, it has been all day.

Then London. It is our capital city, not a village in the middle of nowhere. Millions of people have been affected and will be tomorrow and next week. The amount of money lost by businesses will be staggering. So that too is important news.

Yes, livelihoods in the SW will be affected. As will those in London, think businesses like small cafés and shops, or tradespeople as well as big businesses who can probably ride it out.

[CantEvenKeepAnOrchidAlive]

I'm in the thick of it and yes, its pretty gloomy down here. Everyone is fed up, friends of mine have had to close their businesses, other people are still suffering from the flooding that occurred during Xmas and people relying on transport are heavily let down during this bad weather. Just this morning they announced the train line between Exeter and Penzance is closed, one of the bus companies stopped operating, you were highly advised not to drive at all and schools had been closed due to power cuts.

Its shit. Really shit. Photos of friends and family on Facebook surrounded by candles, videos of views out their windows, images of damage done to property. We lost our shed last night. But I can't complain as a lot of people are a hell of a worse off than a blown away shed!

We'll muddle through like we always do. It is going to affect many people for months. Our roads will remain in a dire mess whilst the council umm and ahh about where to start. Many companies will feel the financial pinch of having to rebuild, make up for loss of customer's etc. because no one down here can do anything whilst it continues like it is.

[CantEvenKeepAnOrchidAlive]

I don't think people in the SW are making it any easier by grumping about the London tube strike being on the news

Not a single CornishCornish or SW person I know has been 'grumping' about the media coverage of the tube strikes. Where have you seen that?

[Changebagsandgladrags]

Yep, things like this piss me off:

At least those stranded in London have lots of hotels to choose from and probably offices to sleep in.

Which is fine of you are in a good job with good money. What about those who don't, who are paid by the hour? The office cleaners, the waitresses, the tour guides, the sessional teachers...

Yes, we feel for those in the SW, like I said, it is awful. Really fucking awful. But ranting about London makes me want to say OK just fucking leave it to sink...

[Changebagsandgladrags]

CantEvenKeepAnOrchidAlive

In the OP. A two day tube strike is big news.

[Onesleeptillwembley]

We in the north get pissed off when all the weather news is based in the south (ok, usually south east) but this is completely different. This is disaster level for the region. Not much practical help but thoughts are with you.

[CantEvenKeepAnOrchidAlive]

Here's a video of the village 2 miles away from me. They're standing above a road that's being completely battered.

[CantEvenKeepAnOrchidAlive]

Yes changebags but the OP doesn't speak for all in the SW. I feel for those caught up in tube strikes, saw some footage on the news earlier - horrendous.