Re: the flooding north of England

[MrsSocks]

Living in a small village that is now essentially an island having been cut off by water, I just want to say what amazing community spirit and support I have witnessed in the last few hours! People coming together and help eachother out in the most extreme of ways, businesses opening to offer overnight shelters, emergency services working tirelessly, and strangers offering to go above and beyond to help those in need. Thank goodness we can still have some faith in humanity

I emailed our Council Chief Executive last Sunday and received a reply from him TODAY telling me that my email had been bumped on to another person and department.
My email to him was replied to on Monday by someone ( not him) who did not tell me what position he held at the Council or add a surname. He more or less said that the flooding situation was our responsibility.

However as soon as the media appeared our Council rushed around pretending to be caring Mother Theresa's. Totally cynical.

The Chief Engineer for our Council has not replied to my email ( I enclosed photographs of the flooding for him) and neither has the LCC flood lead.
The Secretary of my MP has replied.

I have written to David Cameron, just to vent, as he will not reply.

They are ALL going to get away with 'it.' Bugger.

The 'IT' is
Not supplying any sandbags to my community, or supplying any Flood defences ( such as portable flood defences)
When I phoned on Saturday night in desperation, I was told villagers had to collect sandbags from a distribution point a mile away. How they expected us to cart sandbags about , beats me. ( they didn't provide enough anyway)
They categorically said they wouldn't deliver them to the village. ( Lancaster CC did ! )

NOT HAVING A EMERGENCY PLAN, as their response to the flood was ADhoc

Not going around the villages with a loud hailer early on Saturday and warning the community. They knew exactly where was threatened in our area as THEY have published and created their own flood map. I know it is their own as it is headed with their name. They can't really say that they didn't know.
My community was also badly affected by a flood in 1980 and our Council have a FLOOD FORUM called appropriately ' making space for water'

Yes the situation was unusual but it wasn't UNPRECEDENTED.. Our rivers are enclosed by embankments because we are threatened by flooding.

I want our Council to recognise that our flood defences don't work. I want United Utilities to recognise that the combined drains in our village are too small and old and can't cope, and need replacing.
However, without any real commitment from the government, it is going to happen to us again and again.

Calling it 'Storm Desmond ' made it sound so cosy, like a Fairisle sweater. It should have been called Storm ' Shite, all you who are threatened with flooding have had it'

Gawd, Mrs Truss, The Minister for the Environment, how strong is she going to be? As much use as a chocolate teapot. One puff and she's gone.
Can you imagine the men in the government saying to her ' Of course you can have all the money you need to effectively protect thousands of people'?
No bloody chance.

It makes my blood boil to hear David Cameron say ' Money no object'
I would cry with frustration, if I wasn't all cried out.
CYNICAL , CYNICAL with knobs on.
Sorry, for the rant, to end all rants.

You are totally right to rant away. So many people affected due to the lack of planning by those in power and left to suck it up.
I was lucky and not affected directly but it was just the fact I'm not near a river. Pretty much every river in the county (plus surrounding ones) flooded, yes that level is unprecedented BUT not individual rivers flooding. That's why defences are needed, not building on flood plains.

Got back yesterday from visiting dps family in Keswick. The destruction is horrific. Bridges are gone, those still standing have trees and huge clots of earth engulfing them, houses are taped off marked with Do Not Enter Danger signs on them and there are piles of personal belongings and appliances piled high in the streets. It's awful. People are on the streets working though. We even saw small boys with shovels and wheelbarrows caked in mud clearing the silt. Driving through I saw a wooden tortoise ornament upside down in a huge pile of debris by the river. Made me tear up for some reason. Someone had a lovely garden and it was just swept down the river. Dps family lost half their grounds and a huge old tree was pulled down by the water. They suffered less than some. The flood defences held but we're overwhelmed . The water just came over the top. Wonderful resilience shown by the people though.

How awful. I think it's things like the tortoise that get you because you can't comprehend the other damage as its so huge.

Yes! Fil tree being pulled down made fil very sad. He said he " loved that bloody tree, it was pretty all year round !" But it was this sad, upside down lost tortoise that choked me up. The mind focuses on odd things.

I'm so pleased the weather has calmed down for you all.

How's it going himh?

Any progress ?

Well, we are clearing up. It looks as though the Kitchen is totally stuffed as it seems to have disintegrated.

As I thought, our Chief Executive has written to me and said the whole event was unprecedented and so the Council are let off the hook regarding Zilch forward planning.
Feel very weary. The insurance company are sending around a loss adjuster ... Ominous.
My beautiful home has the aroma of Cat wee. The washing machine and dishwasher are finished. The floors are all making a bid for freedom.

I have offers from friends to do my washing, but they will see my Bridget Jones pants and my DHs baggy numbers. They won't mind one bit but I do.
I am sick of this.

Have you got somewhere else to stay?
Wish we could do something more.

Anything we can all do to help HIMH?

Oh Hole, you have all my sympathy. How awful and I am sorry our 'powers that be' have let you down so massively.

Thanks everyone, we will survive
I had to phone a well known company this am about my landline, as it hasn't worked properly since the flood.
It was a 0870 number. I had to use my mobile and they charge you a fortune. Customer bloody Services and it is a 0870 number, fat bloody Customer Services, Talk Talk bastards.
Felt like screaming.
However, two sweet things came around today from the Council and offered us compensation. NOT MEANS TESTED either, They were not sure where exactly the money was coming from. I am presuming, the government.

I hadn't heard anything about it on the news. I had resigned myself to getting zilch, as we are not on benefits. We have had to use more Gas to dry out the place and more metered water to disinfect it. It still stinks of cat wee.
Our insurance will, as far as we know, only replace like with like, not like with flood proof stuff.

Do you know what we did? We, who are supposed to be so called intelligent educated people? We gave them our bank details without first checking who they were. ( well my DH gave them the details , but I fetched them) Total Dumbos!

Just after they left, I said to my DH... We didn't check their credentials and now they have our bank details. We felt soooo stupid. I immediately rang up the Council and they confirmed and described the two sweet things. Phew!
I can't believe what we did.

We immediately went out and bought a washing machine and now noone is going to see my parachute pants. Yea!
The lights are flickering. Everything is on the blink here.
I have also lost 3 lbs as i have no appetites.
I went and sat in a friend's caravan with her tonight. They are homeless. Terrible, There were three other flood victims in it and the sense of community is awesome.
I love the Villagers.

I'd heard about grants, there's something you can apply for to make your home more flood proof. I know dh friend is applying for it. He's getting his wiring changed so the plugs are higher and the wires come down rather than up. His flooding came through the floor so gates etcwouldnt have made a difference.
It's a government grant but not sure what it's called.

I live in North Lancashire and our city was brought to a complete standstill, all main routes in and out were closed and everyone suffered power cuts. I would like to thank all the emergency services and local shops who pulled together and restored my faith in community spirit. The Bay radio were absolutely fantastic during the whole period keeping us updated all the time from a makeshift studio. A charity single has been written and got together to raise funds for flood victims :

www.thebay.co.uk/promotions/help-the-north-charity-single/

I was lucky not be affected by my home not being flooded, but was by the power cuts which at first scared the living day lights out of me due to my home being all electric. Having no cash in my purse and no cash machines working was another problem as the shops could only trade in cash.

But one of the most heart warming of this event was I had my 10 year old GD staying with me because we could not get her home, which at the time was worrying... what was I going to give her to eat, no TV, comp, telephone etc.... She was an angel, ate cold baked beans, bread butter, biscuits and enjoyed them with no complaining and we spent hours just sitting there chatting about everything and putting the world to rights Thank you sweetheart Nana loves you Xx

That's lovely.
Have heard a lot of praise for the Bay and how they dealt with it.

Yellow warnings for rain again today. Sounding v wild here, hope everyone is ok. Dh working tonight in one of the regularly flooding areas and it's still pretty saturated. Have insisted on extra clothes & blanket in the car. Hopefully Sods Law will mean he doesn't need them and the rain will stop.
Hope everyone else is ok.

There are some truly lovely people about. I had moved my car to high ground and I was walking through the village on my way to get it. My DH was trying to stem a mysterious flow of water inside the house and so was busy.
It was pelting down with rain and I saw a villager who stopped me. She asked me where I was going and she insisted on getting her car out of her garage and driving me to my car. What a star.
I hate asking for any help, but she offered and insisted on hugging me. AW

The village has such a feeling of comradeship.

Thank goodness we moved the cars. Some were overwhelmed. I would have been even more depressed if my car had got water in it. It was over the headlights in parts.

I Just watched through my bedroom window, next door getting a delivery of white goods. Good, as the need a washing machine. They are in a worse state than me as they are not well.
So there is always someone worse off.

We haven't been in our garage yet. We are not looking forward to that.

The Council will only collect rubbish for so long, then it is your insurers responsibility. I found that out yesterday.

We are in a cleft stick as we can't throw anything away until the loss adjuster has been so it will be months and months of chaos. Oh bugger.

Read today that there was 2100 homes just in Kendal damaged. Original news reports I saw said 1000 overall.

Sorry to hear more bad weather is on its way. It sounds like an utterly depressing way to have to live.

It's so hard to imagine as meanwhile in the rest of the country life is carrying on pretty much as normal.

I can hear the wind getting up again outside.

Have you got any plans for Christmas day himh. Do you ha e relatives you can visit for the day.

I noted the comment about cash. Since hearing a talk by David icke of all people about 30 years ago when he warned us never to give up on cash, I've always made sure I've had cash on me and a stash in the house for emergencies.

How can you eat if your card doesn't work he said. He's been proved right on so many things. I've never used at ATM in my life and never intend too.

Try to eat little and often . Food is fuel. You can't run a car on empty and you need to get your nutrients .some nice soups , eggs, chicken. Anything to keep your strength up. You don't need to be ill right now.

I hope your insurers are very generous with you and your home is quickly restored.

When the hurricanes went through central Florida about ten years ago, we were quite lucky but a lot of communities lost a lot or part of their roofs and other damage too. Teams came down from georgia and the carolinas to restore power and tarp the roofs. Some communities were without power for 12 days and in that heat and humidity things were starting to rot in the houses.

It was like a war zone. Blue and green taped roofs were everywhere. You could see who was insured and who wasn't. Roofs were restored within weeks to a couple of months on the insured houses but it was two years or more in the poorer communities.

Despite not losing my roof my insurers were very generous and damage was soon righted.

It's a big relief when your home is put back to normal and I hope that happens very quickly.

grant info may be of use to someone

Heard the A591 Kendal end was blocked with water again last night. How did anyone else fare?

We were woken at 12 last night by a serious flood warning alert. Bugger, I can't stand this. I watched the water creeping. It has almost gone down now. I feel like weeping with despair.
My poor Dh and I had a row. It was a ridiculous row about shirts. He stormed off, then came back and we fell into each other arms and begged forgiveness. I love him so much and I was so lucky to have him. It is awful to see him so worried.
We have invitations out to Dinner but to be honest, our minds are in such a mess that it would be better to take a homemade casserole to a flood victim. I really haven't the energy to get dressed

It's stress you don't need. Go with what you're up to.
Hope that's it for water for now.

Its sad that we are so jaded that it takes something like this to remind us that we are usually pretty decent people.
I agree with everyone that said there needs to be a support line so we can donate xmas gifts, cash or practical help.

I've not heard anything back from MNHQ....

We are meant to be driving to the Lake District tomorrow night for Chritmas, we will be using the A66 to Keswick and a few miles beyond. Is it safe/passable, are the roads open??

I'm at the other end of the county but I'd look on BBC Cumbria travel news. A591 is the main road affected but other places are missing bridges and I'm not sure where they are in relation to your route.