By the way, things have mostly returned to normal after the floods. Most of the villages have had their water pumped out, and the restoration work has begun. The biggest way it has affected us is that the train to Victoria's new school is still not running. Apparently there was damage to the track and the signalling equipment which they say will take at least 12 weeks to fix. Hopefully it will be done as soon as possible so Victoria does not have to keep getting rides from co-workers.

We're going to a wedding in the south of England this weekend. I'm hoping this continuous rain we have been having for about 3-4 weeks will finally stop, at least for Saturday night when we have to sleep in a tent!

The effects of the flood continue to be felt throughout the city. In the city center, most of the flood waters have dropped. But some outlying villages in South Yorkshire are having problems with dams overflowing, and have had to be evacuated.

Transportation is still spotty, with Victoria being unable to take the train to work since Monday (when she couldnt' get home by train, and the train hit a tree on the way to work). On Tuesday she took the tram and then someone picked her up, but they couldn't make it all the way to work, and then the headmaster canceled school eventually as many people couldn't make it, so she had to come home anyway. Yesterday she was getting a ride with the same person, who had a massive asthma attack while driving. So they had to pull over and phone an ambulance. That meant she spent a long time at the hospital before going to work. And today the trains are down again, so she has just given up as she doesn't have a ride now.

One of my co-workers is unable to get into work as there is no bus or train service from his town to Sheffield because of the flood. Another effect is on electricity. Apparently electricity is overtaxed because some power stations blew up in the flood. So now they are having rolling blackouts in the city. The city center will not be affected I don't think because of businesses, but many suburbs will be. Our collegiate campus is currently without power until noon today.

They said we had the equivalent of 6 weeks of rainfall in one day, which is quite amazing really. Unfortunately the forecast for this weekend is heavy rain, which is not what we need right now. I'm afraid the situation may just get worse if there is a lot of rain.

You might be curious to see some photos of where my co-worker Helen lives. She is close to the river and when it burst its banks, the building her flat is in had the ground floor flooded. She's on the top floor, so she didn't have any problem though.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8310321@N06/sets/72157600486648583/