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There's been some terrific reporting of the floods, but I have chums still squeamish about evacuation. It used to be part of the BBC's style guide that only buildings, houses, villages, towns and countries etc were evacuated at times of impending danger - something quite different and unpleasant happens when you evacuate a person.

Now the guide has given in. "The rule used to be that only places or buildings were evacuated, not people. This is at odds with common usage, which now allows people to be ‘evacuated’, as well as buildings."