Stormy weather

There's a flood warning in force for a storm surge traveling down the east coast of England. My birth-land - at the very south eastern tip of England - is coloured blue, not surprising as most of the Romney Marshes are below sea level (between 4 and 10 feet below), protected only by shingle banks and the massive, and old, Dymchurch Wall.

I'm not too worried, as this is a well-known threat; very high tides together with a storm surge have been factored into the sea defence planning for decades, and work has been ongoing since the 1980s to heighten the Wall (prescient, given the more recent news of climate effects and rising sea levels). But what does nag at me is the fact that whenever you worry, Mothers always manage to not answer the phone ...