Vocal Voices

Does anyone know how much Aid has been bequeathed by government to those who have lost their homes and belongings
In the terrible floods here in UK. With more to come by all accounts, PROTECTION ? Plastic bags against the onslaught.. Insurance companies are failing to Pay Up. Young and old alike are having to start from square one, everything they valued lost.
This government is good at giving our money away running into billions "to outsiders" often to the undeserving, just how much have they given individually to these desperate people and families in UK who HAVE LOST
EVERYTHING including a lifetime of memories.

I think there are some people in Cockermouth who are still recovering from the floods there over a year ago. I do not give money to any disaster fund as it does not always get to the people who need it. I have sent a donation to a small charity which sends water purification kits to devasted areas and include tools and other equipment to rebuild property. Even in Haiti, some areas are still not being rebuilt and have not recieved any aid.

We are talking about our own people here cruiser, what a country if government allows young and old to suffer
Due to often poor protection, when they can send billions of Shady Aid that rarely meet the needy.

I have a few theories about our floods from the way they were presented.

Firstly, they were not a national disaster in that no one huge area got hit, just "the North Sea coast" and "parts of Wales".

Secondly, the numbers involved. Sometimes it was only a household, a street, a few tens of people, all spread out around the country. Each of them is fighting for their own small slice of a meagre aid pie; they do not have an umbrella organisation to coordinate things.

Thirdly, we are a civilised country with infrastructure and insurance and emergency services. Everything will come out right in the end.

Fourthly, the storm was seen as a 'success' in the eyes of the authorities. The vast majority of the flood defences built over the years stopped another 1953 event. Cue back-slapping all round.

They interviewed a man who lived in a village in Essex and he was saying "I have lost everything, all my furniture, my electrical goods and I had no insurance" Well more bloody fool you then. I feel for people who lose those irreplaceable things, the things that are included in our memories, but not people who have lost everything material and weren't insured, that is just plain stupid

Unfortunately, MM, people living in areas that have suffered flooding will find it
rather expensive to get insurance cover now. Also, insurance costs must be set
to increase for us all.

But it hadn't flooded recently from what I understood? Yes, from now on maybe it will be more expensive, but even so not more expensive than replacing your whole downstairs Aggers.

Sorry, but insurance is not optional in my book, I would rather go without a lot of things than insurance. Especially if I lived in a flood risk area

I think that maybe my original post was taken the wrong way.

The floods were not seen as a national disaster, even though they were definitely a personal one, because they did not hit one specific area. The damage they caused was seen as minor when compared to, say, the Philippines typhoon. A lot of potential damage was averted by the defences built since 1953, the Thames barrier worked. It was seen by the authorities as a triumph of man over nature...... we didn't need an outpouring of grief or any emergency fund raising. We would sort it.

The insurance companies do not see it that way - it's an excuse to put up premiums for a once in a generation event as though it was annual. Those who lost their homes cannot build something in its place, as they usually can in third world disasters, because we have planning rules - and the original ones were not broken.

As a nation we have been sold this as a non-disaster disaster, and because of that we have not been asked, in any serious way, to donate to any relief fund.

Maybe I am coming at it from a different perspective, because my only experience of flooding is this

http://www.nelsonthornes.com/secondary/ ... ga225c.pdf

But my friend lived in St James, her house was the same as those on the photos, and she had to move out, with her disabled son for nearly a year. But her insurance covered everything and she ended up with a nicer house than she had before. She sold it 3 years later, and had no problem selling it.

The only horror stories we had were from people who hadn't got contents insurance,as most people have a mortgage and therefore buildings insurance is mandatory. Plus there are a lot of Bangladeshi families in those areas of terraced housing and several of them had bought their house outright from relatives or have them in lieu of working in relatives restaurants and shops and they didn't have any insurance. There are a few houses still left falling down after the floods from those families

The cost of insurance is phenomenal. Mine is due. £267.00. More coal required, more oil, car tax, insurance,electric and water bills the costs go on and on. I have a very limited income ! imagine those who do not have house insurance "do not have the money and are struggling" I think it is shameful that insurance companies refuse to pay out to those who are insured, and even more shocking that people and communities are going round with begging bowls in the attempt to obtain cash to help those who have lost everything.