Watery fowls
Aug 3rd, 2007 by handolio
I’ve been writing a fair bit about flooding lately. It’s a serious subject; Winter 2006/7 saw the five wettest months since 1914, and the floods this summer are said to be the worst since 1947. Insurance claims alone are expected to total £2.5 to £3 billion, while Evan Davis estimates the total cost to be somewhere around £5 billion.
It’s not just England and Wales that are suffering, either. Violent July downpours in China have claimed more than 650 lives, and news is breaking today of an emerging tragedy in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
Doubtless the debates will continue on whether this is a portent of climate change or 2007 is simply a bad year for flooding. Whatever the reason, reading the news coverage has made me realise how many watery metaphors there are in English, and how carelessly journalists use them.
Take as examples, the article in today’s Daily Mail, which talks of “the first wave of floods”, or the Times’ “second wave of flash floods”. Best, or least appropriate, of all was the Times’ fears of a “tidal wave of flood claims”.
The water has obviously got into the cliché alarms at News International, but still you would have thought they could come up with more sensitive metaphors, given the circumstances. Perhaps a first and second round of flooding, or a marked rise in flood claims?
I find myself wondering whether they’re doing it on purpose. I know how hard it is to get mistakes past the average sub-editor, and the distinctly above-average subs I’ve worked with in the past would have cut and pasted me a new arsehole.
Good job, then, that they weren’t around on 25 June as I posted this clanger, just before the full extent of the Yorkshire flooding became known. I’m sorry, and I’m off to check the batteries in the cliché alarm.
“The Environment Agency said that saturated soil may be unable to absorb any more rainwater in the wake of recent downpours“
“Flood protection measures floated“
“New sewage pipe in the pipeline”
I shit you not.
“How to beat the inevitable flood of rising home insurance premiums”
Have a feeling they may have even meant this one.
“…the company has said it will hold a full in-depth investigation into the incident”
and
“…people from literally the four corners of the world…”
LAST WEEK SEES 1,200 FLOOD DAMAGE CLAIMS POUR IN
- Abbey press release from June 2007
And sidestepping to the equally fruitful subject of road safety, Aberdeenshire Council has announced a “hard-hitting Safe Drive Stay Alive road safety initiative“. Ouch.
“A week after the downpours, many areas were still under water and when the waters finally did recede the insurance claims began to flood in.”
OK, this one’s intentional, but still.