Vol. 71/No. 30      August 20, 2007

The government estimates 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and 43,000 homes were without power. Two days after the flooding much of Tewkesbury, a city in Gloucestershire, a county in southwestern England, remained underwater.

Patrick Quarrie, a care worker from the nearby city of Gloucester, said the flooding had a disproportionate impact on working people. “If you’re living pay check to pay check you can’t just replace what you have lost,” he said. “You’re left to fend for yourself.”

Quarrie explained that there had not been enough water to bathe the elderly people that he looks after. Around 140,000 homes in Gloucestershire have been without water supplies for the past eight days, after a water treatment plant was flooded. Seven years ago the government had instructed utility companies to provide adequate flood defense or move their facilities off the flood plain.

The Times on July 23 said there were “long queues outside supermarkets, as panicked residents tried to stockpile supplies of bottled water.”

The basement flat of Nepalese restaurant worker Dil Basnit in Gloucester was flooded. Basnit described how upstairs neighbors he had not known before the flood gave him somewhere to stay for two nights.

Some people complained about the response of local authorities. “What upset me was that despite all the warnings, the council dropped off sandbags on Saturday when we had already been flooded,” said Tracey Fisher, a school catering assistant in Tewkesbury.

Nicola Newman, also from Tewkesbury, explained how the construction of her home provided weak defense against flooding—pointing to the low position of air vents. She said that an area manager from the shop she works in wanted workers to wade through the water to work.

The village of Upton and Severn was cut off by the flooding when mobile flood barriers did not arrive on time. The Environmental Agency later admitted they would have been too small anyway.

Jim Alpen, a Gloucestershire farmer and forestry worker, explained that a neighboring farmer had lost an entire year’s crop in the floods. “Some farmers have to use their winter feed to sustain cattle now and others face months trying to drain waterlogged land.” In Hereford and Worcester, north of Gloucester, many dairy farmers had to pour away milk because tankers could not reach them.

Rob Keene, a farmer in the town of Over Farm in Gloucestershire, lost his entire potato crop that had cost £30,000 to plant. Keene, who farms 800 acres, is not certain his corn will survive the flooding either. “The government should offer farmers some kind of aid so we’re not forced into excessive borrowing and interest payments just to survive,” he said.

Strawberry pickers at S and A Produce near Hereford told Militant reporters that farm bosses had reduced their hours and they had not received a full week’s wage. The workers, mostly from Eastern Europe, live in caravans on the farm. Two years ago they organized a protest against pay and conditions, blocking a road in the area.

Some companies have sought to cash in on the problems created by the flooding. The Times reported that South West Trains told its workers to sell more expensive tickets to passengers forced to take diversions because of the flooding.

Björn Tirsen and Caroline Bellamy contributed to this article.  
 
 
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