THERE has been a tangible sense of community in Oxford. After three days of waiting the city was finally hit with flooding, with the Abingdon Road area the worst affected. West Oxford also had its woe.

The tension had been building over recent days yet the flooding was met with relatively good humour.

We Brits like a bit of extreme weather as it allows us to grumble. But it is all really pretend.

Most of the people we saw out on the streets were greeting the water with a smile, while we had scores of pictures coming in via the Internet and Twitter.

Our favourite was of one chap lying on an inflatable mattress in the middle of Abingdon Road, while another woman re-christened her town Abingdon-Under-Thames rather than its recently adopted moniker of -on-Thames.

And, despite the flooding threat, about 1,000 people turned out in Abingdon to see troops from Dalton Barracks perform a homecoming parade.

These parades always mean a lot to the Army, but soldiers will have been especially touched that despite the flooding, the people of Abingdon and further afield made the effort.

There’s one final group we shouldn’t overlook either. Environment Agency staff, along with those from the county and city and district councils, firefighters, and police have once again provided a largely stellar service for the public.

And the public has recognised that.

We may have a couple more days of discomfort to come, but our city and county can look back with pride at how once again we have reacted and not turned a problem into a crisis.