Last year's news

[Rosendula]

Do you mind if I rant a bit?
This post might be deleted for some reason - not current news, off-topic, not interesting, whatever. If it does, I guess it doesn't really matter, I just need to get this off my chest.

I'm sorry to bring up last year's news, but I have been quite upset by something my son has shown me (http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet? ... hrELxYCgzQ).

I live in Hull (Kingston upon Hull on some maps), and we were severely affected by horrendous floods in June 2007. It's August 2008 as I write this, and some of my neighbours are still living in caravans in their gardens because their houses are not yet fully repaired after the damage caused by the floods. Someone from a local college put together a video showing footage and photographs of the floods, coupled with short interviews with local people. The video is on YouTube (am I allowed to say that?), and has so many disrespectful, hurtful comments after it. It seems some people do not believe that Hull flooded at all. Some believe the video shows France (apparently after a huge wave hit it one Christmas. I'm not making this up, this is what is being said). A MAN DIED in these floods! Yet there are people out there who choose to ignore such sad facts and use the opportunity to call the local residents - my family, friends and neighbours - well, names I really don't want to repeat in the presence of decent people.

OK, I know I should try to ignore it, take it with a pinch of salt, etc., etc., but it's hard to do that when there are people you care about who have gone more than a year living in little caravans, or, if they couldn't get a caravan, living only in the upstairs rooms of their houses while work is being done downstairs, all day and every day (and I might add some of these houses are tiny and have both adults and children living in them). My house is in a small block that is a couple of feet higher than the rest of my neighbours and I watched in horror as their homes flooded and the water gradually crept up my garden towards my house. Luckily for me, it didn't get to me. But do you know what? I can't even feel relieved that it didn't get to me. I can't feel lucky. I can't say "thank God" or even "phew". All I can feel, even 14 months later, is a deep sympathy for all those people who lost their homes, their cars, and other belongings, many of whom are still battling with the insurance companies, and many of whom can no longer GET home insurance because of the floods!

I'm sorry this is such a rant but it really got to me. I can't understand why people are so cruel. I am skeptical of a lot of things that are shown on the news and reported in the papers, but this was real! I saw it with my own eyes!

[Ellendra]

People have short memories.

Already the midwestern floods are forgotten, even though the water hasn't receeded yet in many areas.

All I can offer is sympathy, I'm afraid.

[Millymollymandy]

Rant away! There is no reason why your posting should be deleted and people put links to Youtube up all the time.

I'm sorry there are still problems where you live and yes, people can be very cruel.

Edited to say: I've just read some of the comments , not just cruel, but also very, very thick. Good grief.

[oldfella]

Just read the comments, what a sad world we live in.

[MKG]

Don't be too upset, Rosendula. I live very near to Bentley, another place where the victims are still in caravans, so I understand your anger - however, the level of literacy displayed in some of the comments on the video tells you everything you'd want to know. Don't get angry - just laugh at the morons.

[ina]

Rosey - you have my sympathy. And MKG is right; those folks are morons. I often think all these free-for-all comments online aren't always a good thing... They give people the chance to let off steam - maybe they feel bad about something else, and can't do anything about it, but here is somebody they can hurt, and no comeback! Not at all fair, and very difficult yo ignore, I know. Be assured not everybody thinks like that.

[Rosendula]

Thank you all for your kind reassurances. What worries me is that while I can usually avoid such sites that have so many negative comments and nasty people, there are other people, such as my son (16) and eldest daughter (14), who use them regularly. At their ages they don't like to spend too much time with us, and I worry that they spend more time reading that miserable BS than they do with more positive people, or on positive sites like this one. I guess I'll have to just tell them what I'm thinking and hope they understand that not everyone is like that.

[Bluemoon]

Rosendula, I live in Sheffield another place hit severely in the same floods. Yes I know people who are technically still homeless, either in caravans or emergency council accommodation. People died here too and I can imagine how distressed you must feel. There were other casualties too, not just the people who drowned. I know of one man who (fit, healthy and only in his fifties) died simply because he was so demoralised at what had happened to the home he'd worked so hard for. The hearse couldn't even get close to the house and his family had to walk quarter of a mile to meet it on the day of his funeral, ankle deep in stinking filth that still covered the streets. I know of people who have lost their livelihoods because roads which were washed away are still being repaired and customers can't gain access to their businesses. I know people who were rescued from roof-tops, people whose cars were swept away and many, many people whose difficulties continued long after the news helicopters had gone off to some other story. There were lots of heroes too, from the RAF who airlifted people to safety to just Joe Bloggs on the street who did what they could.
Ignore these idiots, Rosendula. No-one with an ounce of common sense believes what they are saying, it's just a shame that their pathetic lives are so sad and unfulfilled that they can't think of anything better to do with their time.
Oh and Ros, if it's France at Christmas time how come the leaves are still green on the trees, there's (ironically, I suppose) a very British water board van being towed away, and the cars all have British registration plates? What a moron this person truly is.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I see why you're upset. But these comments are from kids - not very bright ones, judging from the quality of the writing - and they cannot be taken seriously. You know what happened, so do your friends, neighbours and family. While it is annoying that a bunch of jumped-up, spotty, pre-pubescent keyboard heroes with halitosis find it amusing to belittle other people’s misfortune, they don’t matter.

Your children are talking to you and took the trouble to show you what was being said and that, at least, is quite a positive thing.

[DominicJ]

But then from the other side, those of us who bought houses 20 metres higher than the nearest river get to pay more tax and higher insurance premiums to bail out those who wanted a river view.
I fully accept most people who were flooded didnt buy a house they knew flodded, but most people who werent flooded are still going to get a bill for it.

[MKG]

A bit simplistic .... The people who were flooded out of house and home in Bentley suffered because of new flood defences put in further upriver, not because of their yen for picturesque views (the people of Bentley would laugh at that idea). Some people in this country have bought houses on flood plains - but I would rather blame the idiots who approved the planning, built and sold the homes. Most people suffering from recent flooding have done so as a direct result of the actions of other people, whether that's poorly planned flood defences or the commercial selfishness which has resulted in the changes in climate which have produced abnormal rainfall patterns.

Just because Noah liked sailing doesn't mean he deserved what he got

[DominicJ]

As I said MKG, its possibly not the fault of those who were flooded, but it certainly isnt mine.
Yet I still get a bill.
It shouldnt be difficult to understand why that could annoy some people.

[Thomzo]

You are so right, MKG. There is an area of Swindon very close to me which never used to flood until a huge development was built up the side of the hill. Who is going to pay for the poor people who get flooded. The developers should, of course, but you can't prove it.

Everyone ends up paying, Dominic3, not just you. Insurance will never fully compensate for the stress, inconvenience and sentimental value of what is lost during the flooding.

And the sad people who post that rubbish on Youtube - well, they'll end up having sad, lonely lives where their only fun comes from upsetting others. I feel sorry for them.

Zoe

[Bluemoon]

Perhaps I should also have listed, along with the catalogue of woes, the young couple who had to spend a week living upstairs in their house, without electricity. Nine months later their new son was named Noah.

[ina]

Perhaps I should also have listed, along with the catalogue of woes, the young couple who had to spend a week living upstairs in their house, without electricity. Nine months later their new son was named Noah.

Just as well it was a son, then!

Or is Noah's wife's name recorded...