Wet Wet Wet: Flood is All Around

If you've been following the news lately, you'll know that England is currently dealing with its worst flooding crisis in living memory! Since last Friday (20 July), when torrential downpours began causing havoc on the roads and pushing rivers to their limits and beyond across central England, hundreds of thousands of people have been affected. And one of those people happens to be Bec, whose work is based in Gloucester which is one of the worst affected areas. (Check out these Gloucester flood pics on the BBC website).

On Friday afternoon, all Star employees were told they could leave at 3:30 to try and make it home before the roads became impassable. Bec, privately thinking it was only a bit of heavy rain and that these British people were over-reacting slightly, didn't need to be told twice to go home early! 3 hours later when she was still sitting in her car about 5 miles down the road from work, she had to concede that this was a little out of the ordinary...

After many frustrated attempts to find a road out that wasn't already flooded, and with her phone almost dead and the dreaded petrol light mocking her from the dash, she finally gave up, parked the car and walked into Gloucester with Rachel, a similarly stranded Star colleague. Thinking they could be stuck there for the night, and not really liking that idea, they put their boyfriends on the case from home to send updates on the road situation. Finally at about 9pm it seemed the roads were clear (aside from a few huge puddles!) and Bec finally staggered through the door at 11pm, exhausted after her ordeal.

But the drama didn't stop there. Bec received a phone call on Sunday to tell her the Star office had no mains water supply, as the nearby water treatment plant had been completely flooded and the water contaminated. All 'non-essential' personnel were to stay away until further notice for health & safety reasons. So Bec has been "working" from home ever since! Still no word on when the water will be back on, thousands of homes are also without water and the damage bill is estimated to be in the tens of millions. And all this in the middle of Summer...