We've had our own local disaster, with extensive flooding taking some peoples' homes, and cutting others off for longer or shorter periods; in this area, poeple have always built higher up and away from the water, and one way or another, Dagmar and I have so far been able to get in and out all days but one, although some days we've had to leave the car on the far side of the little bridge which lets us get from the farm to the road, and wade through the river, the waters up the knees and the swirl threatening to take you off with it if you slip; the timbers which make up its basis seem to be holding, but the planks on the top, which are what you actually drive on, aren't standing up too well, the uncertainty about whether the road will hold takes an awful lot of energy, and at best you're spending lots of time allowing extra time for journeys, driving the long way round, and so on ...

The road authority puts up 'road-closed' signs, and even barriers, and don't check for a week whether they're still needed or not, so the locals just move them aside and use their own judgment as to where you can drive and when - it's different every day, and it's different morning and evening. Perhaps worst is that the weather-people haven't a clue about what's going on, although they still make their pompous 'ex cathedra' statements about what "will" happen tomorrow - one day they say there will be lots more rain for the next nine days, the next day the sun is shining brightly and they're saying it'll stay like that for a week.