Last night as I drove home the heavens opened and our village was deluged with rain, though luckily the drain system in our area is able to cope. Further north in Scotland, they were less fortunate when torrential rain prompted over 50 calls to Tayside’s Fire and Rescue service. Photos on the BBC website show the main high street in Cupar brought to a standstill because of the flash floods. What struck me though, was a comment made by councillor and shop keeper, Willie Robertson, who said ‘we’ve never had as much water in our shop ever, even before we had a flood defence scheme.’ If that is the case then I would be seriously asking questions about the return on investment for that flood defence system.
Why do some people never learn ’sufficiently’ from these recurring events? Is it that we think that a disaster can never happen to us twice, or to the same extent? Back in April, within a couple of weeks of the year before, Tooley Street in London was flooded. You can compare photos from each year and they could easily have been taken at the same time. The disruption caused year on year by the same natural disasters, or as a result of human error must surely have some effect on how we plan for disaster recovery and business continuity, however I am still to ’see’ and ‘feel’ that both the government, the public and industry alike take it seriously enough. The flood waters disappear, the sun comes out, life goes on and it is easy to forget just how bad it was - until it happens again!
Author: Karen Jones
