Flood thoughts

We’ve started to go a bit stir crazy. It’s been a long weekend, without going out since Christmas Eve. So it is we ventured out yesterday.

First we bumped into a neighbour. We asked how she’d managed. Last New Year’s Eve/Day was the time when her husband keeled over dead, so we knew it was possibly a traumatic time for her.

It turned out not too bad. Her son & his family had come over to spend Christmas/New Year with her, to give her some support. However, they’d watched the news on Sunday & so had hastily headed off home on Monday. They’d seen the flooding in York, & living further down river in Selby, they knew they would be next. They rushed off in the hope of salvaging something before it was too late. As it was, they were uncertain how navigable the road would be to get home.

Come the evening we found ourselves wondering what our priority would be if we had a flood alert for our home. We concluded the first thing to do would probably be to pack a bag with essential documents, insurance documents for example, photos which are irreplaceable (though we did begin to wonder whether we wouldn’t be wise to put them on the cloud) & a few clothes.  To take upstairs with us, a bit of water & some food suitable to eat cold perhaps. After that most things are replaceable & neither of us is so attached to things that we would miss them unduly once we’d got over the shock. It might even be nice to buy a new set of books, pictures etc. Some things, though, would be a shame to lose. Loved paintings would be easy to move upstairs but old furniture that has been in the family for generations would be far more difficult. We could only hope the wood is so well seasoned that it would dry out okay.

The heartbreak & anxiety for all those families affected by the floods must be unimaginable. I suspect they will look at any long downpour nervously, fearfully, for a long time to come. Selling their homes will be difficult for a while unless they are prepared to take rock bottom prices. Temporary accommodation will be scarce as so many people will have to move out of their homes while they are dried out & restored to something liveable in.

And now we await Storm Frank to arrive this evening. We’re once again anxious as to how much will come through the back door, but know it will be nothing to what some people will be suffering.

I have to confess I love places with rivers running through them.  The water gives a place of peace away from the hurly-burly of a city such as London or Paris. But at times like this I’m grateful that the Lune, our nearest river is about a mile from us & there are cliffs between us & Morecambe Bay. There is something to be said for buying that house on the fellside overlooking the lake rather than on the lakeside itself, no matter how idyllic it may look.