Clearing Up.

Above is the sight that greeted me Saturday morning.

Its Monday afternoon now and all is quiet here, the brook is back where it should be and the chickens are safe, for the time being in their house. Their house had to be retrieved from 2 doors away where it was in the middle of a sort of ‘Log Jam’ of trampolines, next door’s Wendy House and numerous 6 foot Larchlap fencing panels.

A quick check of our garden showed we had gained a heavy wooden shed base, ;  

 a large canoe, a golf bag, complete with balls, various beach balls, a greenhouse heater, fencing panels,

plastic flower pots and a family sized paddling pool plus a ride-on child’s army jeep.

Everything is coated in mud

and the lawn really shouldn’t be walked on, you just sink through it. Unfortunately, it was necessary to walk on it while we set the chickens up with a home again. As part of the lawn is a very steep slope ,the inevitable was bound to happen. Oh no! Not an earthquake on top of everything else…… No, just me going down on my ample backside!

Saturday afternoon we went to have a look at Hylton Road, where the BBC Studios are. The temporary flood barriers should have been erected here but the Environment Agency didn’t get them in place on time. I don’t know that they would have held this amount of water back but for the people living there, who have now been flooded out yet again, it would have been good to try! I'm sure that's what these poor people, who were just evacuating their homes thought

If Friday night was surreal with the Mayor and Leader of the Council walking through my kitchen, (thankfully its not an old house with a back passage, that could have made another news story entirely), then Saturday night was bizarre!!

Again I was cooking the dinner, when the phone rang. I answered it and it was somebody called Chris Vallance from BBC Five Live. He said he’d seen my Blog and could they have a Live interview from either me or Mike. I volunteered Mike, as that’s what he does best, well it’s the only thing really. He also wanted to use a photo of mine on their website. I had no objection to that and here’s a link to it. BBC Five Live

Mike did the interview and then the phone rang again. This time it was BBC 24’s Betty Redondo. I passed her on to Mike and he ended up doing another Live interview. They used one of my photos on screen while they were talking to him, which was exciting. Think I might have to start a career as a News Photographer.

There hasn’t been much to laugh about but yesterday I had to admire the fortitude of Anita Woodhouse, who did the most sterling job of reading out all the road closures on BBC Hereford and Worcester, for hours on end. Not once did she crack when she read ‘and in Upton Upon Severn, Minge Lane is only accessible from the bottom entrance’

The forecast is for more rain, I hope it isn’t going to be much. I realise how very lucky we have been compared with so many people who are having the most miserable time, many without, homes, water or electricity. No matter how lucky I might have been it still doesn’t alter the fear a massive body of water, rushing passed your house generates. The knowledge that there is nothing you can do against this unstoppable force, other than just hope for the best is mind altering.

PS.

I didn't have time to upload this before now but this short clip gives some idea of the force of the water. It was just a short distance away from our house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8GdO9NFh4

 

Tags: Worcester Floods.