They weren't kidding this time

At 12.10am this morning the phone rang, only one of us heard it! The message said that flooding was imminent and to get pets, children and elderly relatives upstairs and not to take any unnecessary risks as flood water can be extremely dangerous. Not meaning too sound cavalier about this very serious situation as we have had dozens of these messages since 23rd December this year, I thought that as we don't have any pets and the elderly relatives were upstairs (and one of them was still asleep) that there was nothing more I could do.
I spent the rest of the night listening to the incessant rain worrying about whether I should have taken more notice of the message. All was well this morning although the woodland opposite is now 100% saturated.
Not so for 1,000s of others who also get this message, it must be totally devastating for them and I really do hope that it stops raining SOON.