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Your Name
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jess, jess, ryan and joe (age 10)
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Area:Tilbury school
Ryan:I went to London to talk about the floods. When we got there we had a look around, then we went to the place, we waited there for a bit, then this person came to get us and we went up in an elevator. We was only expecting to be talking to four people, but when we got there there were loads of people and we didn’t have enough room. I’d prepared a powerpoint presentation for it, and I presented it. It was about how the floods have effected people. I’d put like how some people got skin conditions, heart conditions, lung problems, all caused by the floods.
I talked about personal things, my experiences. What happened to me – we didn’t get really badly flooded, but we got secondary flooding. We was ripping up the carpet to put laminate flooring down and we had to move out of our house for three months and stay at our nanas. Our mum and dad stayed at the house and lived upstairs with our cat having kittens. They had two rooms, all cramped, and hardly any space to walk around in.
When we went to my nans, we had to take our dog with us, ‘cos she was having puppies as well. But Jess can taell you more:
Jess: not long ago, my auntie only found out that she was flooded and she had to live upstairs. It was alright us moving out cos I knew where everything was.
Ryan: I didn’t though, ‘cos my dad had only just got with her mum. While I was there, my mum and dad was coming to visit us, and a bus ran into their car. Joanne got whiplash. This lad was smashing all the car up and jumping on it. This same lad was smashing windows and everything round the estate.
Joe: when the floods were happening, I was at my nan’s café, and that got flooded a lot. It was really difficult to get home, ‘cos every single road was blocked. I had to stop at my grandmas for three days, cos we couldn’t get through.
I felt sad.
I felt depressed.
My auntie was depressed. Her house got flooded, it was that bad that she had to move in with her sister and she’d spent a year getting the house done before it was flooded, ‘cos she wanted it nice as she was supposed to be getting married. She went to my aunties and then she got a hotel and she was in there for five months and she went to see her house – it was nearly done, so she got a caravan in the back garden and it took them that long.
I was quite angry, cos my dad works away, and he was in Scotland and he had to stay in a layby for two nights ‘cos they wouldn’t let him get through the water. Even though the tyres were massive – the water where he was came right up, nearly covered them.I didn't see him for ages.
I felt optimistic because I was thinking it would take time, but I saw a lot of people working together, and more friendships.
Actually, I read a report that said that most people in the community thought kids weren’t affected, because they’re resilient, so they thought kids were ok. But they were affected, ‘cos of the disruption to their home life, and parents taking their stress out on the children; they can’t go out to play – nowhere to go.
We did get ill during the floods.
I got spots.
Me too.
We had these red spots. The doctor told us they was eczema and he give us these creams for them. Said they were open wounds, but they weren’t open wounds.
I had a rash right across my neck.
Nearly every body in the school had rashes. All of us. Spots and like a circle, and it was all down my back..
My little sister had them as well, she was only two at the time, and all you could hear on a night was her coughing and spewing up and everything and we all thought it was chickenpox, but it wasn’t. At the hospital they told us to go home, lay on the bed and drink plenty of fluids. Amy’s got worse, and she was shaking as well – she couldn[‘t stand still. My mum rushed her to hospital, and they said she was fine and gave her an injection. The spots went down, but you can still see them.
The cream that I was using made my spots worse.
I got sent home from school with my bad spots.
We all had bad throats.
It’s left us all anxious. Everytime it rains, even just a little drop, you worry that it’s going to flood again.
My granddad says it happens every seventy years. But it happened twice in the space of two weeks.
The school got the first flood on the 15th june, and we’d just recovered from that, and then they got the main flood, and it totally wiped us out. All the teachers, instead of being at home with their families over the summer holidays, they came into school getting it all prepared.
We had to go to Pickering school – there was three classes all in one place, no room. they didn’t have the resources to follow our cutrriculum. We could only really do PE and Art.
Good things that have come out of the floods:
Our house has got a plasma screen. Its real nice andbig and we’re sorted.
We’ve got a wii family trainer.
I’ve got a plasma screen in my bedroom and one downstairs.
My mam had all her washing in the garage, where the washing machine is, so all the clothes had to go, and we went shopping and we practically bought the whole shop. It was great.
The carpets are nicer at school. And the windows and doors are all ne and not falling to bits.
I still think it’s better that the floods happened in the school, because we’ve got all new things. Everything that needed doing has been fixed.
It looks even nicer now
Outside you can tell it’s been changed. It’s like the biggest clean out ever.
We’ve made things out of the tree logs.
We have the best school in the world, but since the floods, we’re doing even better at school. It feels like it’s home because it’s colourful, things that we like are in the school. and everybody is happier.
FLOOD STORY CATEGORIES & main themes
GENERAL FLOOD STORIES
SCHOOLS
YOUNG PEOPLES STORIES
3) NEW WAY OF LIVING
HAVING TO MOVE OUT
6) STRESS/LOSS
POSITIVE OUTCOMES
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