Floods

Yesterday we had a month's rainfall in a day and this city was put on a state of emergency.

My Mum had nearly finished her dog walk and was trying to get to Sainsbury's when she found that the road she usually crosses was a lake and unpassable. However, she was not unduly concerned as it was like that last week when it flooded so exchanged a wry glance with a lady who was standing at her front door to keep a check on the water level and continued up the estate to try and find a dry bit through. This proved to be impossible and my Mum ended up with the two dogs on a disused railway line on a piece of waste land unable to get out because of a high fence. She ended up scrambling down from a railway bridge somewhere in the centre of the city.

As she finally got to Sainsbury's for her paper she explained what had happened to the shop assistant who was sweeping water from the shop who said 'Surely you didn't want a paper that much' but my Mum said 'Well actually I had to walk my dogs'.

As the day progressed the floods got worse and worse until even this street (which is on a raised bit of ground) looked like Venice with the road knee deep in water and waves lapping up the pavement. When my Mum came to pick me up (bringing my Dad's big fluorescent work jacket for me to put on) we saw that the road she had walked down in the morning kids walking back from school waste-high in water.

There were police and emergency vans everywhere and on the air you could hear the sound of sirens. Some ladies had given up wearing their high heels and were walking home in bare feet. In the streets next to our's people were bucketing water out of their houses and building walls of sand bags. My Mum had to carry me across our road on her back.

My Dad couldn't get home from work so went to my Grandma's where the water was half an inch from coming in the back door. He said the Avenue was a heaving torrent of brown water which had come off the nearby hills.

We kept a regular check on the water level outside our house.

Today most of the schools were shut and I fell out with Jack because his school was shut and mine was open. It turns out me and Holly didn't need to have gone to school after all because in one class there was only Lorna and Harrison.

On the way to school there were tide marks and flotsam and jetsam. On the way back James at Tesco's was looking very tired as he had just completed a twelve hour shift to cover for the people who were at home sorting out their houses. Later on the girl on the evening shift had come in because she just couldn't face it at home and her eyes were red-rimmed.