KEY POINTS:
The corner seat in the bar of the Waterman's Arms was uncharacteristically empty yesterday lunchtime.
It is normally occupied by Rosemary Shorter who, at 94, is not only the oldest resident of Osney Island but was born and has lived there all her life.
But on Wednesday, she and 250 neighbours who live beside the Thames in west Oxford were moved to the safety of football club Oxford United's Kassam Stadium, amid fears that their homes were about to be engulfed by rising waters feeding in from the Thames' flood plain.
The Environment Agency has been predicting a flood in Oxfordshire since Saturday but it finally arrived yesterday, sending muddy brown water spilling into the old railwayman's cottages which make up this sought-after quarter of the university city. Within hours the highwater mark had passed the previous floods of 1947 and 2003.
Yesterday the main Botley Road into the city was impassable after the Thames burst its banks, flooding dozens of properties. Sandbags lined the streets of Osney Island guarding the entrances of the £400,000 ($1.03 million) homes from the additional 400 cu m of water that was surging past each second - twice the river's normal capacity.
The top priority for the firefighters who have been here since the weekend was safeguarding an electricity substation which feeds power into the city centre, including the famous colleges. Pumps there were continuing to remove more water than was flooding in, they said.
For Henry Dean, the former coach of the Oxford University boxing club and now landlord of the Waterman's Arms, it is an ill wind that blows no one any good. His pub remained resolutely open for business yesterday, serving up plates of ham, egg and chips to locals - the only concession to the waters which surrounded on all sides was the cancellation of the pub quiz, although a jazz night would still go ahead tomorrow, he said.
"These have been the best three days since I have been here - we should do this every month," he said.
The long wait for the waters to arrive had taken its toll on some. Paul Hughes, a Formula 1 car builder, said it had been a tense time for everyone.
"First we were told the surge would come at 9am on Saturday, then it was midday, then 3pm, then the evening and then midnight. Then it was the following day. Now it is supposed to be 5pm today. It would be better if they just said they didn't know. It has been like Chinese whispers - they've kept us on tenterhooks and now I don't bloody care."
Giles Dobson, owner of Bacchanalia, a boat hire company, said the recent floods had devastated his business. He had been ordered to confine his fleet of pleasure craft to their moorings as the river level reached dangerous levels last week.
"We have had a miserable summer so far. Normally a good school holiday season can set you up for the rest of the year. Now we are faced with three weeks out of action and I'm spending my time arranging refunds," he said.
Further along the Thames, communities downriver from Oxford were bracing themselves for the waters to arrive. Two severe flood warnings remained in place on the river around Oxford and another on the Ock between Charney Bassett and Abingdon.
With up to an inch of rain forecast for today falling on the already sodden ground to the west, the summer flood misery is far from over.
But one Oxford resident refusingto be cowed was 90-year-old Alice Jones.
"I'm concerned but my daughter has just come and I've gone down to have a look at the water," she said.
"I've got a pair of wellington's and I've survived floods in 1947 and 2003 so why should I move for this one."
- INDEPENDENT
