‘I was watching myself being wiped out by the floods’

PENSIONER RECOVERING FROM HIS FOURTH CANCER BATTLE SEES HOME DESTROYED

A PENSIONER has described his year from hell fighting cancer for the fourth time and then losing everything in devastating flash floods.

After spending the past year recovering from major surgery, George Hodson’s home was completely destroyed by the flooding in Westminster on July 12. His basement flat filled up over one metre high with a mixture of floodwater and sewage that turned his whole life into “a pile of stinking, rotting stuff”.

George, 72, said: “I was sitting there reading my book and the dogs were sleeping when the lights started fuzzing and flickering. Then everything cut out and to my horror sewage started pouring in from every angle. The first feeling was sheer trauma – not understanding what was going on, but also knowing what was going on.”

Then, he “panicked and rushed out to the garden to try and clear the drain” – although this did very little.

The dogs were “screaming and paddling” and George managed to throw them onto the sofa, but they were left “traumatised”. They were all stuck inside for half an hour, as the door was blocked by the water.

George said he was standing there “watching yourself being wiped out – losing my world”. This included ruined love letters that floated by, books and George’s collages.

George became an artist in the wake of his positive HIV diagnosis and then the death of the “love of my life” Sam to complications from AIDS in the early 1990s. His art was very important in helping him grieve and avoiding selfharming, so the loss of these pieces was particularly poignant.

When the firefighters arrived and George finally got out, he realised the whole street had been affected.

“Two hundred lives ruined in just a minute,” he said. “I just stood there in the only clothes I had left with my little dogs and I just cried. I felt so weak. I’ve had scary things happen to me in my life, but this was the worst.”

George had recently undergone major surgery to address the fourth type of cancer that had hit him and was still very frail from the operation.

“I was already struggling with life before the floods came. I can’t believe my luck,” he said.

At that point, though, “community kicked in”, which was a “wonderful, beautiful feeling”. Neighbours with space put George up in a room and friends came to pick up his dogs and took them down to stay at the seaside with them.

He said it took Westminster Council three or four days to start looking after people, so even though they “tried their best” overall, it was “quite chaotic”.

George has been in temporary accommodation now for eight weeks, and will most likely have to be there for at least another month. His first day there was “like a living hell”.

He said: “I just stood there in this tiny room with no one around me and I just couldn’t process anything, even though I’ve had a lot to process in my life.”

George was moved five times in total, but is now happier in a place in Soho, feeling “nearer to my community”.

He said: “My trauma and loneliness is starting to turn into a surge of raw anger – from raw sewage to raw anger.

“How has this happened and who was responsible? Who were these invisible people who wreaked awful havoc on our lives? How can we rebuild from this total devastation? We pay Thames Water money to look after and protect us. No one has apologised or come forward to take responsibility.

“We deserve justice.”

George cited a major flood at the end of his road that had happened eight years ago, which he said should have been enough to warn Thames Water of the potential dangers.

He said: “They didn’t do the work properly after that incident and there hasn’t been enough maintenance since. They’re hiding behind the ‘act of God’ explanation.”

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “At this stage, our initial investigations have not found any evidence of a failure on our network that would have significantly contributed to the flooding. However, as with any extreme weather event of this nature, we want to fully understand what lessons we can learn and an independent investigation will take place over the coming months.”

George has no savings and has set up his own fundraiser on GoFundMe, which has so far raised almost £2,000.

He said the council will redecorate, but added: “After that I’m on my own.”

This means he still needs to raise more funds in order to be able to buy basic furniture like a bed, a mattress and a sofa.