Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 October 2006 09:27:40
The night before last it rained. Lots. And lots. I woke up and laid in bed for a while wondering if our roof would hold. Last year you may recall me mentioning the saga of our roof and the indoor water feature we had. Lying in bed I feared the feature would return. So I got up to check. Inside was still dry... well, mostly. Our back door leaks. It has done for a while. In the morning we discovered a large puddle inside the door. But it was soon mopped up.
Down the road our friends had less luck. Mrs loves storms. She woke up in the night, got up and enthused about the severity of the rain and lightening... until she heard Mr, who had got up and gone down to the kitchen for a drink, shouting ‘Flood. Flood'. Their back door did more than leak a little. Two foot of water pooling in their back yard was seeking an escape route. Mr braved the weather, ran around the house and, after some difficulty, found the manhole cover and opened it. The foul water rushed away, swirling down the huge plughole. His boots are ruined. And their kitchen requires more than a little mopping.
I work with flooding. I investigate the risks. Study the rivers. Design defences. But it's different when it's your friends who phone up and say help, we've been flooded. Yesterday I felt a little sad.
Our housemate, on the other hand, felt very happy. The storm also directly affected him. But in a nice way. The call centre he works in had been hit by lightening in the night. The computer systems were down. He went to work and didn't have to actually answer any calls. His Neverending Telephone helL took a break for the day. And the sun shone.