IT won't have escaped the notice of anyone who's visited Worcester city centre in recent days that, far from resembling a bustling shopping area, it has the air of a ghost town.

While we'd be surprised if there wasn't a stay-away element among residents who can't be bothered to put up with detours or gridlock, the national media does have much to answer for in painting a picture of the Faithful City as marooned, rather than simply sodden.

If the figures worrying traders make alarming reading - 50 per cent of annual business coming in the last month of the year, the big four stores losing an average of £105,000 a week the last time the Severn broke its banks - then everyone who calls Worcester home has a responsibility to support local businesses through the worst.

It's only 16 days since we offered the opinion that, when the last crisis was over, the city must gather its collective thoughts and debate what needed to be done to stop "the next time" being as horrendous.

Next time, of course, arrived before much of the mop-up had begun to bear fruit. But the point remains valid as we look to the skies and the weather map of Wales.

Where, last time, we were talking about bad parking and the difficulties of traffic-management, today we'll add a commercial crisis plan to the list.

While not wishing to add to the gloomy mood, we have to assume that periods of flood will come and go with frustrating regularity until the weather changes and the water-table drops in spring.

Climate change, it has to be accepted, will foist similar conditions on us as 2001 slides into old age too.

It means that, although there are hundreds of lessons to be learnt, we don't have much time to refine our plans for the floods to come.

The sooner we all come to terms with that impact on our lives, the better.