Red Alert

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN5b0NRcpvnrRT5KNg3HH3SupIE9epVZAeoGUlZFtJndAs8Z30bJalxAqLqF-8ZYQ?key=UnFaSWhabjFNQ3BHbWgzRzhTMnpXZ3UxcnVneEJR

Not sure if the link above will work; its a little video of Annie and Petes mill above Couiza, that they have posted on Facebook. The mill sits squarely on the River Sals - the river that has risen to flood Couiza - so their friends have been concerned for their well-being. Extra difficult, as its hard to raise a wifi signal there.
So the film is a relief and a shock. Their land rover is lying in a raging torrent and their van is all but submerged. They are OK though.

And Aileen and Ole-Bendik are alive but flooded. Their house is at the edge of Esperaza, built over an underground stream: the stream is currently overground and belting through their home.

All our other friends seem fine, we have been spared the terrible destruction that has hit the Aude. Latest say 11 people are dead and 3 are missing. We are still on Red Alert; schools and collages closed. Carcassonne hospital is totally flooded so don't get ill, OK?

Our Canadian friends made it through to Carcassonne yesterday using the mountain roads and said it was deserted (they have touring visitors who wanted to see La Cite) As was Esperaza... hardly any traffic as there was allegedly no way in or out.

Kat and Roland gave me, Gert and Elsebeth dinner last night, a lovely evening despite the ringing sense of shock that is pervading the area. Kats fab cooking and the company of good friends alleviated that a good deal:)

And look who turned up yesterday!

 Mujtaba arrived out of the blue, coming to visit his Esperaza friends. He was in the first group of refugees that were bused here from Calais and now lives in Toulouse where several of that original intake have settled. Most have contracts now, working in shops or on the roads. 

Mujtaba has an interview next week so fingers crossed for him. He sends love to everyone and says Esperaza will always have a special place in his heart; but he had to say that as I was complaining that they came, befriended us all and then pushed off as soon as they got better offers, bah.

He doesn't know any of the latest arrivals and we were laughing at how the young ones have got it made - already with wifi and smart phones and music, the things that Mujtaba and his colleagues had to sort out for themselves in their bewildered and fearful state. 

He told me of the villages in the Sudan that were wiped out by floods and how the floods were followed by a dreadful disease that kills in three days following a very high body temperature. 

Lets hope we don't have to contend with that.