8 November 2019

Newsworthiness

As a news junkie, my "go to" website is the BBC News. In my humble opinion, itt is brilliant. It gives up-to-date local news, national news, news from around the world, sports news, entertainment, comprehensive weather forecasts and much more. I have yet to find a better news website anywhere on the internet.

When you first click in, there will be a headline story. This often changes as each day progresses. Yesterday evening's headline might well have been, "Trump Misused Charity Fund" or "Johnson Keeps Russia Report From Public" or "Children Are Still Starving In Africa". But it was none of these. It was in fact "Biblical Rainfall Leaves Streets Flooded".
And what is more, that report was about my home city - Sheffield and its close neighbour - Rotherham. We had an absolute deluge of rain yesterday. To use a Yorkshire expression. "it pissed it down" all day. 

Like Rome, Sheffield is built on seven hills. Those of us who live on the hills are pretty much immune from flooding but those who live in the valleys, close to the rivers and brooks will occasionally experience floods. Back in 2007, I reported the last serious flooding episode to hit the city as The River Don burst its banks and young Ryan Parry drowned. Go here.

As far as I know, nobody drowned yesterday but many vehicles were abandoned and at The Meadowhall Shopping Centre on the edge of the city, more than a hundred shoppers simply could not get home. They had to sleep there.
I was like a caged beast - going stir crazy. I couldn't even get out to deposit items in our recycling bins. The rain flowed down our street like a stream. At ten o'clock in the evening I donned my raincoat and headed out to the local pub - just to escape from the house. My trews were soaked when I got there and outside a waterlogged double decker bus was receiving the attention of a mechanic dressed like a lifeboat man.

Two of Shirley's nurse colleagues were called back to their  homes during the day because of water inundation.

This morning, as I tap away at this keyboard, God's wrath has diminished and I can see some blue sky. It is no longer raining. Praise The Lord! I think we are going to survive but where was Noah when we needed him?

42 comments:

  1. I have family in the Retford area - they have been regaling us with tales of woe. Wet woe 😊

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    1. There is a lot of wetness around Retford - reservoirs and wetlands, drains and streams. And it is flat there too. Nowhere for a deluge to run.

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  2. I miss Sheffield and it's people , after reading this

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    1. You could escape to Sheffield but the taxman would still track you down.

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    2. Sounds like your tax men are every bit as tenacious as ours. One cannot hide.

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    3. The tax women are even more tenacious - like Rottweilers they are.

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  3. And all that water could be so very helpful in these areas right now....

    All day aircraft have been flying over this plateau carrying water, no doubt, en route to fight the fires across the way at Beechmont. Those poor devils went through similar just a matter of weeks agao...

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/list-of-evacuations-for-bushfires/news-story/4219af5dccd8e687718c4f4056b6da0e

    https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-fires-out-of-control-emergency-level-fires-rage-across-nsw-and-queensland/78a6ade9-7c93-4a45-b488-28a9de0680ce

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    1. Thanks for those links Lee. If the Queensland authorities want to send a massive plastic bottle to Yorkshire we will be happy to fill it for you...with water!

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    2. It would be nice if it was a humorous matter, Yorkie...but it's not. The smell of smoke is heavy in the air.

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  4. Just to make you jealous, we had glorious sunshine yesterday. Sorry! Our weather patterns are completely crazy at the moment. Not sure if it's global warming to blame or not. But then again, it was obviously a problem in Noah's time. Glad your go-to news site is the BBC. Mine too. Greg used to work in the newsroom and was very pedantic about how the news was written as it went out to a world audience and every word was important. He used to say "one man's guerrilla is another man's freedom fighter", so the right words are important. Good old BBC.

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    1. I think Nelson Mandela was once an insurgent, a rebel and a terrorist. It took a while for History to rewrite itself.

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  5. We for some rain last night but not that much! Now we're due for some very cold weather, coldest of the year so far. I may even light the fireplace tonight. Have a great day!

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  6. We *got* some rain....jeez.

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    1. Fear not, Juniper, I forgive your mistake!

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  7. I imagined you building an ark.

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    1. I imagined dressing as Noah and refusing you entry.

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    2. Do you like dressing up?

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    3. Only on a Saturday night. The heels kill me.

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  8. As we now know someone did lose her life albeit in Derbyshire. It all looks and sounds horrendous.

    As for the BBC News I agree absolutely. Being a fellow news junkie (though heaven knows why) I get every headline on my iPhone and the BBC excels.

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    1. I see that it happened at Rowsley - just south of The Chatsworth Estate. Poor woman.

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  9. Good Lord! I'm glad you and Mrs. P. are safe and that the blue skies are coming back.

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    1. Next time Nurse Pudding ventures out to work, I am going to give her a lifebelt and flippers.

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  10. That is a lot of rain. Pissing down seems like an accurate description.

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    1. Don't Canadians use the expression?

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    2. I do. We also use pissed to mean mad, as in pissed off, and to mean drunk, as in he's too pissed to walk.

      My youngest daughter can't talk and uses sign language to communicate. She's also mentally disabled but I taught her the sign for pissed off and she understands and loves it.

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  11. I sometimes use the expression "chucking it down", although I have very little use for it these days. Even today, which has been a wall-to-wall rainy day, it was not really chucking it down, just raining. And we do need it!
    I had not heard of the flooding in your area yet. I suppose my relatives further North in the Ripon area are not affected.
    Good job you reached the pub alright, without having to swim!

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    1. "Chucking it down" is a polite way of saying "pissing it down" but this is what one might expect from a polite, well-mannered young lady. Young to me anyway!

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  12. I'm glad you stayed dry. I had visions of a Yorkshire Pudding bobbing around in the floods.

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    1. That makes me think of a new Halloween party game! Not bobbing for apples but bobbing for mini-Yorkshire puddings.

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    2. Wouldn't work, they'd go soggy.

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    3. Oh! I hadn't thought of that.

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  13. I can see you pacing like a caged beast not able to go on your long walks. Weather does have a way of changing our plans at times. I hope you will be able to return to your walks soon and the rain will cease.

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    1. Thank you for your good wishes bonny Bonnie!

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  14. For some reason (ignorance, I assume), I would never have pictured severe flooding in England. But I suppose anywhere there are hills, and - therefore - valleys, it will happen with heavy rain. We had pouring rain last night here, with some areas of local flooding, but not to the extent you did.

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    1. This is a maritime nation facing incoming weather systems that cross the Atlantic - often laden with moisture.

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  15. Wow! That's serious rain. Now as for Noah, he helped very few people. I wouldn't have had a chance with that dude.

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    1. The animals came in two by two. I am pretty sure that Noah would have picked you and The Micro Manager Red. He wouldn't have wanted to risk winding up that woman.

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  16. It is a miserable business flooding in towns. Houses saturated and I presume stinking after a time. Our pub next door has been flooded outside twice in the last few days, everywhere is saturated with water. Wellie boots are an advantage though!

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    1. And if they get tired of dealing with the water they can pause to have a welly wanging competition!

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  17. I’m glad you haven’t been personally affected by the floods, which I was just reading about in the news here in the states! Thank goodness you live on high ground.

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