Floods in the North

I was devastated when I heard the news and yet all I did was watch the pictures on the television. My heart goes out to the family of Bill Barker, the brave policeman who lost his life in the floods and to the people who have lost their homes, I weep for them. I know exactly what they're going through and what they'll go through in the days and weeks to come.

When we lost our home in the floods of 2007 you hope that never again people will go through that but they do and it's happening more and more often. We haven't looked after our world very world have we?

In 2007 Mike, the then chairman set the challenge the subject was 'Water, water everywhere' This is what I wrote a month after we were flooded.

Water, water everywhere. Carpets floating, toilet overflowing mingling with the dirty  contaminated river water and rushing headlong into the kitchen, into the fridge, the freezer and those corners that never see the light of day covering everything in mud, silt and shit.

            The water came in uninvited, unwelcome, robbing and raping, stealing our home and all that was important to us and then it went. Leaving in its wake total destruction, ruined irreplaceable memories and photographs and lives that were already damaged, devastated and broken.

            Now homeless, pride and dignity all gone, we have to rebuild but how?

Please remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have suffered in the recent floods