It wasn’t fun getting home on Friday – although the middle of the trip was OK the start of it (from Hanley Swan to Upton) was pretty bad due to serious flooding on the Hanley Road near Hanley Castle and the end of it (from Pitville Gates to Imjin Road) was extremely nasty. Wyman’s Brook had overflowed and was running down the road:
The back garden was also a river with the grid overwhelmed by the water.
It all died down by about 8pm but I have to admit that I didn’t sleep well. Saturday dawned and apart from some mud everything was fine and we did some tidying up and various things. It was on Sunday that things started going down hill. Severn Trent announcing on the BBC that the water had gone off – and the only way to find out any information was to use their website which promptly died. What ever happened to driving round in a van using a tannoy (apart from the fact that it costs money and that would mean less money in the rather deep pockets of the Board of Directors and the share holders).
BBC news has been covering the ongoing disaster as it unfolds round Tewkesbury and Gloucester but it all seems oddly distant. The water is still on here (for the time being) as is the power and apart from being sensible with our water usage life is pretty much as normal – the ADSL line is behaving itself after being a bit flaky this morning and I’m working from home (which is something I really grateful that the company I work for allows).
Severn Trent have said that it could be 14 days before our water is back on. I cordially invite the Directors to come to my house and live with us for the next couple of weeks – of course they’ve probably all buggered off to the sun and just don’t give a damn about their customers.
