Floods

In 1928 when I was 5 years old the River Thames burst its banks.  At the time we were living in a street just one street away from The Embankment close to the south side of Lambeth Bridge.fortunately for us we were living on the first floor of a small block of flats.  The river came over the top of the low embankment wall and flooded our street.    The row of little one storey cottages below us were inundated.   Our neighbours came running out of their houses carrying what they could rescue.  They sought shelter upstairs in our our block of flats and the neighbouring one.  People opened their doors to take them in. Furniture and possessions from the cottages floated along the road.  One man said he had been pursued by his  bed and chamber pot. In the morning the neighbours had left to try to salvage what they could,  A day or so later  my mother was changing her dress and opened a drawer to get a belt and a rat jumped out and bit her.  She nearly died of fright.  She was terrified of mice so this was an even worse nightmare.  Our dog, Flossie, jumped on the rat and killed it.  That evening while mother and I  were out my brother and a friend and Flossie emptied the chest of drawers and found three baby rats.  Mother was never to forget her ordeal and got rid of the chest of drawers.  She couldn't bear to open it.
Soon afterwards the embankment wall was built to its [present height and we had no further trouble.