The Guardian view on the floods: global heating and British soaking | Editorial

The drama and loss of recent days should focus minds on the urgent necessity of climate adaptationThe death of Annie Hall, the former high sheriff of Derbyshire who was swept away by floodwater last Friday in Darley Dale near Matlock, was the saddest and most shocking consequence so far of the destruction wreaked across northern parts of England over the past week. While cameras in recent days have been trained on and around Doncaster, where dramatic pictures from the village of Fishlake and suburb of Bentley showed people being towed along red-brick residential streets in inflatable boats - and where the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, paid a visit - the affected area stretches south along the course of the river Don through Rotherham and Sheffield, and on to Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, where the river Derwent burst its banks last week.Road closures, buildings underwater so that residents who have chosen to stay are stuck upstairs, thousands more homes evacuated while gardens are turned into lakes, transport chaos (Rotherham's railway station, for example, currently resembles a canal), volunteers ferrying neighbours and journalists around, police standing guard to ward off looters - the chaos creates a kind of spectacle while it lasts, and opportunities for generosity as well as danger. But one resident, Sue Marshall, surely spoke for many when she said that she feared becoming old news very fast. "What we need to know is that in two months' time, the MPs will look at what has been done to stop it happening again." Continue reading...