Just too much rain

Just too much rain too quickly and it overwhelmed the drainage system. That seems to sum up the thirty six page report that has been produced by the Independent Review Body on the June floods in Hull.

Only anoraks will read the full report, the rest of us will stick to our prejudices that were decided at the time. And Killing Time sums up the reaction of a lot of the public in his post After the flood… Two things I noticed in the report when I read it. One was to do with that icon of the flood – sandbags:

…we also heard that often the sandbags were not reaching the most vulnerable, as residents were taking them from the vehicles before they were deployed. There was also some evidence of a lack of public awareness of best use, for example, sandbagging doors but leaving airbricks exposed. (p.16)

Not too much ‘Dunkirk spirit’ when the sandbag lorries arrived. Less ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ more like ‘I’m Alright Jack’. And when some made sure they got first go at the sandbags they were too daft to realise they needed to block up all the entrances to their houses.

Secondly I noticed this little bit that makes you wonder about the people running the emergency team called ‘Silver Command’:

Surprisingly there was a lack of local knowledge of Hull City regions from Silver Command hierarchy … (p.33)

Looks like the ‘officers’ didn’t know the ‘battlefield’. They should get out more.