BRITISH FLOODS

BY SIMON WILLIAMS

 

British floods cause misery to thousands, test the emergency teams and sees the UK Government not embracing emergency funds from the EU -funds that have helped emergencies across the world, including the USA. 

 

Thousands of British homeowners will face another fortnight being unable to bathe, flush their toilets or wash their clothes following the chaos caused by the July flooding across the United Kingdom.

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Waters have started to recede and UK Minister for Environment, Hilary Benn announced that a further £10million emergency aid would be made available to efforts.

 

“This emergency is still not over and the River Thames continues to cause concern” he told The British Times Newspaper.

 

The Mythe water treatment centre based at the meeting point of the Severn and Avon believe that it will take a fortnight for supplies to be fully restored.

 

The plant is the supplier of over 140,000 homes in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury and has been submerged for 48 hours when the flood was in it’s worst moments – leaving the storage tanks contaminated and pumps and electrical gear ruined.

 

The UK’s biggest freesheet, The Metro showed pictures of the empty supermarket shelves in the worst hit areas   as people buy up supplies – today 24th July.

 

The British summer of 2007 will be in the record books, with an average rainfall of 26.18cm of rainfall across England and Wales in June and July. As August quickly approaches a matter of centimetres of rainfall are needed to nudge the current record of 27.06 cm, set in 1768!

 

Sadly the record-breaking challenge will add to the awful summer experience of those affected by the floods so far!

 

The British MET office advise for another ten days of unsettled conditions but are happy to suggest that better weather is coming – perhaps a glimmer of good news for some 340,000 people so far affected by the floods!

 The flooding have tested local emergency services and local government authorities; together with the army with suggestions that the army is not up to the job. However, recovery and emergency work by all services have been shown on local and national networks such as Sky News and BBC as making a difference and doing the job well.