Just a quick note about the Thames flooding. Here are a couple of snapshots taken yesterday evening of the Thames about a 15 minutes walk from where I live. They were taken with an iPhone. I live in Ham which is near Richmond Park. The Thames always looks awesome and beautiful but it can cause a lot of distress and chaos. Billions of gallons of water race by at 15 mph only feet from you.
Hundreds of homes are being evacuated along the Thames in places like Purley, Staines, Wraysbury and Shepperton. The Thames has burst its banks west of London, which is upstream. There have been countless government warnings urging people get out because there is a threat to life. People are seeing their homes severely damaged. Their homes will possibly become uninsurable (or they’ll pay much increased premiums) and unsaleable if this really is an example of global climate change which is what a senior employee of the Meteorological Office has stated that it might well be. People who just bought their home, having finally got onto the property ladder are seeing their dreams shattered under tons of water and mud or worse, raw sewage.
Many people are leaving their home with their cats and dogs but many others are staying because of looting. This is not very British, you might think. You’ll have to think otherwise I am afraid. People just move upstairs and get around on boats and tractors with trailers. In typical British stiff upper lip style they carry on as normal (well, not really) and treat the road as a river, and substitute the car for a boat.
The truth is that if this is permanent climate change it will change the way of life for hundreds of thousands of people in Britain who live on low lying land including flood plains. The Somerset Levels in the West Country have been flooded since Christmas. These are flood plains as I see it. One has to ask, should people be living there? Thus far the answer is yes but now it may be the case that people will gradually migrate from these once attractive places to higher ground.
Properties along the Thames are extremely desirable. Often they are large detached houses worth many millions of pounds. They are actually on the banks of the river, within a few paces of it. Beautiful but now it is bad. Some of these majestic mansions are flooded. Their value slashed, I suspect.
How is this relevant to cats? Well it is because when a family evacuates a home they take their cat or dog. A cat may need rescuing having hidden somewhere or is trapped. There may be loss of life. Fortunately cats are good natural swimmers when forced to do it.
People understand what is going on and that probably makes it easier to accept and adjust although it is a nightmare. However, for the domestic cat who has to live in a strange place with a mass of disruption, noise, confinement and uncertainty it is the sort environment that can cause ill-health through stress and other hazards. The cat is more vulnerable I feel under these extreme circumstances particularly as their “owners” are extremely stressed themselves. Perhaps many cat caretakers will place their cat in boarding catteries. They may stay for a long time. For many cats living along the mighty Thames, this is a frightening time.
I hope your new place is up the hill Michael. Such beauty in those pictures…mother nature doing what she does. I hope no lives are lost. And that the animals are thought of in advance.
I remember a train being cancelled from London to Winchester because of, get this: “leaves on the track” – if there’s one thing the Brits are no good at it is weather. If it’s sunny for a week there’s a hosepipe ban. The whole of Hyde Park is brown, not green, and all the people are red from sunburn lol. If it drops below minus 15 all hell breaks lose on the roads. God forbid there be a snow storm like you get in the US and Canada – the whole of London would literally stop.
I agree – it’s good those fancy houses are in trouble because it will have an affect on the political class.
This is circulating on facebook
Thanks Ruth. I think the fact that the Thames has broken its banks is important because the flooding affects wealthy people living in beautiful houses on the Thames. There will be lots of lobbying of politicians now to do something even if it is very late.
It seems there was little preparation for flooding like this by any of the government agencies. It is chaotic and people are managing on their own. And the Brits manage damn well on their own.
Your photos are so poignant Michael, I hope everyone stays safe and all their pets too.
We heard about all your flooding down South, it’s awful! We know only too well, our kitchen was flooded twice last year and we were lucky compared to some whose whole downstairs was flooded.
Water is beautiful in its place but it can be devastating, we have houses here by the river dropped in value since all the flooding we’ve had over the past few years and it’s terrible for people who have made their homes nice but some have even been flooded twice.
I think if our whole downstairs became flooded we would live upstairs. It must be truly dreadful to have to move out, especially with cats in the family.
P.S. Windsor Castle, a place where there Queen stays sometimes, has got a new moat! Some of the playing fields of Eton school are under ankle deep water. These are the playing fields where Wellington developed his spirit to win the Battle of Waterloo.
Many home a long way from the Thames are flooded or in imminent risk of being flooded.