Rambling a bit

[pez]

Having come from a different country, it's always hard to feel satisfied. When I'm here and I see people doing things a stupid way, I think "why don't they do it the way they do at home!" and vice versa.

At home, because of typhoons, there's an established system. At Grade 3, young school children don't have to go to school. At Grade 8, all schools stop running and public exams get postponed, people who haven't gone to work yet are to stay home, people who are at work should go home if deemed safe, or stay at work otherwise. Etc etc. And then there was this once, when I was quite small (think I was 10) but I do remember, when there was no typhoon but a very, very bad storm. My mum tried to get my dad to drive me and my sisters to school, but my dad just said "it's raining so bad, just don't go to school!"

Now, back in those days, the concept of "not going to school" just... didn't exist in our minds. My sisters and I were like: O_O HUH??? It was a completely foreign idea.

But it turned out my dad's decision was a right one. That day, loads of landslides happened everywhere. A residential building, I think it was some 15-20 storeys tall, was half buried. And I remember the news saying that a man drove his kids to school, and then got killed on the way back because of landslides. A lot of people died that day.

Anyway, from that day on, we got the rainstorm warning system as well. When it's yellow, people should be on alert. When it's red, the kids stay home. When it's black, everyone stay home (and pray).

Of course, that was way back when and since then, a lot of landslide prevention work has happened. Even when we do get black storm warning now, there is usually just major flooding. There are people who'd need to be rescued from home in low lying land, of course, but deaths are uncommon because people know they are to stay home/where to seek shelter. Children get taught in school the different weather warnings, too.

Now, UK is a very different place. Because of its scale, telling people to "not go to work" nationally is probably a very bad idea economically. But now that freak weather is getting so un-freaky/common, isn't it time to establish some sort of a system? Isn't there anything anybody can do?

Comments

[scribblemoose]

I think you're absolutely right - it's something we've needed for a long time. I think somewhere in the back of the English (possibly also British) psyche is a concern that perhaps we're over-reacting and should be sucking it up and getting on with things. Even when the sky is falling.

It's very silly, really.

[strawberryjoy.livejournal.com]

Was discussing with Jane when I got into work this morning, because there had been very little traffic on the roads and various announcements in the media about not making inessential journeys. Jane wanted to know if work could count as an inessential journey. In fact, in government offices there is a relevant procedure but it's never actually been activated (at least not in the last 20 years). It's just as well because it's a cascade system which involves me ringing everyone to tell them if and where they should report to work, but I'd have to go into work first to get their phone numbers! There are also arrangements for making announcements about school closures - but of course, that's not terribly helpful when the parents are still required to go to work. Ironically, most of the arrangements which have operated in the past related to snow, which we're getting a lot less of.

I guess the main point is that arrangements don't get established until there's a major disaster or events have formed a clearly recognisable pattern - and as far as the weather is concerned, I suspect we're still in the denial stage that this might be a regular thing. Although the weather has been much warmer/wetter than you'd normally expect in January, it is actually several years since the last really big storm - which I remember vividly because I was walking through it to the train station at 6am and was literally being blown into the road. Haven't experienced anything like it before or since.

[mushrooms.livejournal.com]

I went to HK when I was, uh... twelve I think. There was a red warning. Us of the teeny sheltered-by-other-huge-bodies-of-land country had no idea what that implied. XDDD

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

many years ago there was a blizzard and my mother got me up for school, wrapped me up and sent me, I waited for the bus and just as i was about to give up the stinking thing came around the corner.
I was one of five in a secondary school over a thousand who made it in. The one teacher who had come in (they had announced on local radio that the school was closed but that would have meant my mother listening to it) was going to drive us home, but the weather was so bad we couldn't go anywhere, so we sat in the one room with a fireplace (the chapel) and watched jesus of nazareth (catholic school) until late afternoon when the weather cleared up enough for us to go home.

So I second the motion! we get gales this time every year, around march we get flooding, we get landslides and occaisionally we get three flakes of snow and hundreds die - not to mention tight old ladies who die of cold rathe than turn on their heating.
We should petition someone on this.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Yes... I just got up to check the travel news for the rail line I use:

"Owing to severe disruption to rail services, customers are advised to travel if only absolutely necessary."

*sigh*

It looks like it'll take a disastor (or three, because I agree with Scribbles that the British like to just suck it up) for anyone to do anything.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

There are some local warning systems - my mum's area of Norfolk has such a thing for flooding, but it's mostly about evacuation and so on for particular areas right behind the dune-line. (On average the area suffers a major flood every fifty years or so, but a lot more minor ones.)

There really does need to be something for dealing with more extreme weather.