Sky News on emergency funds for disasters

[NorthernRaider]

SD will delete this pretty soon but whilst the forum is so quiet I thought I would chance my luck and post some informative news snippets as the media responds to the now prolonged floods down south.

http://news.sky.com/story/1200443/what-a...-emergency

[River Song]

I once tried a little project. divided the year into 52 weeks.

On Week 1 - I put £1 into a jar
On Week 2 - I put £2 into a jar
On Week 3 - I put £3 into a jar

etc etc

I didn't get to the end of the year but I did get around 25 weeks in before I gave up.

[NorthernRaider]

If I lived on the Somerset levels would have definitely laid down a contingency fund of a few quid perhaps saved over the good years, I would definitely have adapted the home so all the precious and valuable items could be elevated way off the floor or were able to be moved upstairs, and I would have absolutely done stuff like collecting a growing pile of sand bags, perhaps a set of waders, and an inflatable boat.

I actually live on a windy hilltop so I keep spare roofing tiles, tarps, cord etc and boards incase the wind damages my roof or busts a window. I also make sure my gutters and drains are kept clean each year.

Whilst my heart goes out to those poor devils being flooded in Somerset I think its pure folly to think anything man made can always keep mother nature out AND relying on any government agency to keep them dry and safe is simply naieve. Most of the people being interviewd KNEW and said so that the environment agency had not dredged the water ways for 20 years and many smaller gullies had never been cleaned for even longer. So they KNEW there was a risk but few people planned in any way to mitigate against the inevitable.

Its no different to driving your car months on after the low oil warning light comes on. You KNOW sooner or later the engine is going to seize solid but you choose not to make plans for when it does such as joining the AA or getting a spare vehicle.

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We are all going to be caught out at some point when mother nature or the government plays nasty, its just common sense to try and put in place a plan to mitigate against the problem when it does come.

[bigpaul]

the environment agency WERE dredging when we moved to Glastonbury but stopped that in 2001, wife's cousin is a councillor for North Somerset Council, the ground is so saturated it cant take any more, if you live below sea level expect to get flooded, most of the levels get flooded EVERY winter but the rainfall this year is excessive.

[NorthernRaider]

Its heart breaking to watch on TV, such a stunningly beautiful area inundated with water for over 3 weeks now, its going to take absolutely ages to restore and repair most of those houses.

Another lesson the government has not learn is that scrapping the civil defence system and its stockpiles of equipment was criminally stupid.

[bigpaul]

actually according to the councillor no house is actually flooded, that's just media hype, sure their cut off, the water is lapping at the steps and the villages are cut off by flooding and the only way out is by boat but no flooded houses he says. for the 10 years we lived in Somerset flooding was a fact of life in winter, there were just places you could not go due to flooding, one winter it was snow and ice and they were digging early lambs out of the snow drifts up on Priddy.

[NorthernRaider]

Must be flood damage in some house my friend cos they are currently showing the damage to one elderly ladies home as we chat?

[bigpaul]

haven't seen that yet, wasn't on the lunchtime news, i'll see if I can watch it, anyway it was just what the councillor said and he is more "johnny on the spot" than any of us, seeing as how the flooding started about a month ago I would have thought the media could have found a flooded house long before now, if only to say "told you so".