A Deluge
Well, Sheffield is under water and for the first time probably since Hillsborough my city is the central focus of the national news. Living on the upslope of a hill we missed the worst of it and until we caught the news late in the day was actually quite enjoying the whole experience.
We had quite severe rain a couple of weeks back and I happened to take the dog for a walk at Endcliffe Park where the river was really high and raging, so we decided to do the same thing yesterday (with Rach and Joe in toe) so I could show them how bad it was last time. Unfortunately things were a little more severe this time as we couldn’t access the park at all from our usual spot has the river had burst its banks and flooded most of the walkways. We wandered around the perimeter and finally found a way in but there was just water everywhere. The dog (and child) had a whale of a time splashing around while Rach and I just looked on in awe at the amount and speed of the water. Having got a thorough drenching we headed back home and switched on the news at which point the severity of the whole situation became even more apparent. Needless to say we spent the rest of the evening glued to BBC News 24 with an ever increasing sense of disbelief. It really is rather odd to see places you wander every day under feet of water.
What was really quite funny though, was the way the news was desperately trying to turn it into a natural disaster of biblical proportions while the eyewitness reports from middle of the road Sheffielders didn’t really give them much scope to do so. Most folk seemed to be taking a fairly laid back approach to the whole situation, but if you only heard the newscasters ’spin’ then you’d think the city was on the brink of collapse.
Saddly there were fatalities. A 13 year old was drowned in Millhouses Park after being swept away. A tragedy for sure but during the brief stay we had at Endcliffe Park there were untold idiot children trying to cross waterlogged bridges that really weren’t safe and laughing hilariously when there footing slipped. Rach even went so far as trying to warn off a couple of girls but to no avail. The ignorance of youth I guess.