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.
Thanks Dee. The USA is in the news over here quite a lot in respect of extreme weather: Californian hot spells (the hottest on record) and super hot areas in other states and storms etc. I worry about water problems in the US. Water could end up being a precious commodity.
There are no water problems here except inadvertently drowning in it. What puts us at risk because our failings (if this is climate change) also puts our cats at risk.
What you show in pics is very beautiful.
And, ofcourse, all animals are at risk.
So many phenomenons happening today just makes me think. Although I am not christian, I was brought up on those teachings and wonder whether those folks might be thinking that the end is coming because of all the happenings.
I think the bible says that the earth will not be flooded again (Ruth can correct me if I’m wrong), but I would be willing to help build the ark.
Very bad and a crisis. People are saying that foreign aid should be diverted to British people! I see the point.
wow it’s pretty serious. I never heard of the Thames flooding before like this.
There were some nice stories about cats and dogs being rescued in the paper today. It is a bad time for cats along the Thames.
All we get up North is cuts, cuts, cuts. Today our local council have been and taken down our street lamp bulbs and put in dim ones because they have to save money because they get less and less allowed. You already take your life in your hands going out after dark here with desperate unemployed people turned to drugs and stealing to keep up their habit. Our pavements are uneven, potholes in the roads, hedges clipped and the clippings left lying because of being unable to pay staff to do necessary routine jobs. Boarded up shops as businesses fold, public facilities closing, old people neglected, their carers hours cut, while all the time the bankers thrive at our expense and the Windsors and MPs get a rise. Now we find our council tax will be rising this year, times are very bad indeed!