Flooding in Britain; not just a natural disaster

This video is called England, Kingston Rain Flood-GB-20/07/2007.

By Robert Stevens:

The summer floods in Britain: Outmoded and decayed social infrastructure exposed

Severe flooding in Britain has produced an ongoing national crisis, with tens of thousands of people seeing their homes ruined.

Many have been left without clean drinking water and electricity. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes and be accommodated in emergency shelters, as flood waters rose to levels of up to 6 feet. The Royal Air Force mounted its biggest-ever peacetime operation, with six Sea King helicopters rescuing up to 120 people in life-threatening situations.

Despite warnings of further heavy rainfall following the June floods in which large parts of Yorkshire and Humberside were flooded, including Sheffield and Hull, the government made no preparations whilst making token promises to help affected councils with minuscule levels of funding.

On July 21, Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed that the government had had responded as quickly as possible to the crisis and added that it was “an emergency which no one could have predicted.”

Only now, in response to the devastating floods, has the government stated that the flood defence budget will actually increase. It will rise from £600 million to £800 million a year but not until 2010-2011. The increase follows years of underfunding and cuts in the flood-defence budget. It is a sop that cannot hope to address the problem of building new flood defences and bringing older ones up to the standard required.

More flooding expected: here.

Meanwhile, hundreds die in eastern Europe heat wave.