THE FLOOD

We have seen some frantic activity today. First thing this morning my son told me that there was a burst water main at the top of the lane, I remembered that I had noticed that the tap was running very slowly an hour or so before he came home. All morning there were traffic jams in the lane as people attempted to bypass the problem. I had quite a lot to do this morning so it was not until the afternoon having made another batch of apple and lemon thyme jelly and prepared a summer vegetable soup for tonight's meal that I was able to go and see what was going on. Running past our gate were two thick pipes, these were being used to pump out the water which had flooded many properties at the other end of the lane about a quarter of a mile from us, the water was being pumped into the river just below our house. We often watch the high tides with some concern , we did not expect the threat to come from the other direction. I met people who had been watching all day and that told me that the water had been very deep in places and that many homes were flooded, there were fire engines everywhere and firemen manning the pumps, I did not go to the end of the lane as there were already lots of people standing about making a nuisance of themselves.

We were lucky this time the water did not reach us as it ran off into a lake before it got too close. I feel very sorry for those who were not so fortunate. I have seen at first hand the terrible devastation that water on the rampage can cause, the village in the valley close to where I grew up flooded quite often, it can take months to clear up the mess. The trauma cannot be under estimated when a persons home is destroyed. Many years ago my home was destroyed by fire, we lost everything including three beautiful cats. I was so shocked it was hours before I could speak and years before the bad dreams stopped, I still do dream about the cats sometimes.

It looks as if the pumping will go on for a while so it will be noisy in the lane tonight , we are use to noise though. I just hope everyone is ok, and I cannot get over how lucky we have been. I have just seen the pictures on the BBC web site and I am shocked, the disruption has been much worse than I was told, many people without water for miles around, it is hard to believe that while all this is happening a few hundred yards away we are safe, I am very thankful indeed that we were lucky this time.