Looking at the brighter side, the deluge of Saturday the 26th of September could not be blamed on any one person or agency except something over which we have no control. At last are we now convinced that climate change is the greatest threat to the planet?

Only Noah’s ark could have saved so many trapped on so many streets that were no longer streets, roads that were so quickly swallowed up by water they turned into oceans. Friends saw houses that drowned, vans and TVs that floated in the flood. I was high and dry, alone at home until two visitors unexpectedly dropped in, refugees from the storm. (On the bright side, we enjoyed dinner and red wine by candlelight – a dozen blazing candles to keep out the dark, wind and rain!)

Incessant, unceasing, relentless, endless rain, never a spot of time (like 5 minutes?) for it to stop, never a window of opportunity for the warm, golden sun to shine through. It looked like the end of the world – especially when the lights went out and the taps went dry.

Still, better no lights and no water than the flood entering the house, for which I was grateful, not angry. How could I be, after watching the same misery afflicting the southern state of Georgia in the United States? The TV reports didn’t blame climate change, but throughout the week CNN had been showing celebrities from Harrison Ford to the Prince of Wales and the Princes William and Harry with their friend, a green fat frog, making the pitch for keeping the planet safe from destruction due to climate change.

Over and over again the pictures have flashed across the screens of television and the screens of our minds. The Arctic melting, the temperatures of Greenland dropping precipitously and too speedily.

Global warming is a global warning.

But in a tropical country, who cares that warming by a half-degree melts the polar ice caps, which then inundates the world? Would it be better to continue preaching more familiar lessons by citing no-no routines like throwing garbage into rivers and esteros? That way, we can blame individual action and carelessness for every little and big flood.