time to take stock....

the past 24 hours have seen what the met office is calling the wettest June ever. East Yorkshire has had continuous rain for a period of 24 hours. Flood water rushed along main roads & country lanes like ragging torrents, reaching depths of 4 to 5 feet.

Villages, towns & cities were cut off from the outside world, whilst here on our little hill we watched with horror & amazement at the events unfurling before our very eyes.

Yesterday evening Harry was out in one of the tractors rescuing drivers marooned in flooded cars, driving through depths of water that if his father had known about, he would have been banned for ever from driving a tractor again! Harry & Ben, trawled the lanes checking abandoned vehicles & trying to prevent the foolish from attempting to drive through river depth floods.

This morning, although the sky was still overcast, it did have some texture promising an altogether better sort of day. Went down to the beach first thing, the footpath was still flooded in places, Gordon thought this was great fun wading through but Lucy-Piglet, a more sensitive soul, was a little concerned that her 'rabbit run' was under about a foot & a half of water.

The cliff face too had not escaped undamaged. Water of any description does not work well with boulder clay & sure enough large landslips had been taking place, turning the clay to a very runny chocolate sauce consistency. Shanty Town is now on the brink of extinction. This caravan was making its way gracefully down to the beach whilst this morning, l would imagine, the hut dwellers would have had to get out of bed very gingerly indeed to prevent any downward movement.

Out and about this morning, villages were still impassible. Hull, well put it this way, we didn't even attempt to deliver to Hull Truck Theatre. There are cars & buses abandoned every where. People are, as so often the case, having to fend for themselves.

What is interesting and a point mooted by Harry last night was that the police seemed unable to cope. They were closing roads off, which was a good point, but in doing so appeared to have no plan in place as to where to send cars that were being diverted. Cars were still attempting to pass through deep water sending 'bow waves' washing towards the already flooded houses.

Today, hardly a policeman has been seen, villages blocked by flood water have had no 'road closed' signs, to prevent through traffic from getting stuck. As usual, with adverse weather conditions, utter chaos prevailed.