WHILE I appreciate local concern for flood victims, I feel that the attention given to the flood crisis in the York area is now getting completely out of hand.

The tragedy of the earthquake in Gujurat, India, is of far greater significance.

Tens of thousands of people are dead and a similar number have been left without homes and possessions. The conditions that prevail are incomprehensible to those of us in the Western world.

I really don't think laying out a few sandbags and evacuating a handful of homes is in any way comparable to raking through the remains of collapsed buildings, or pulling a body from the wreckage of a home.

Isn't it time we stopped being so hysterical about the floods and put things into perspective?

Emma Watts,

Lawrence Street,

York.

Updated: 11:27 Monday, February 05, 2001