In North Dakota, crews in Bottineau and Renville counties were cutting open some roads to keep water flowing and away from farmhouses.
Faced with voices from Scotland and Wales, does he rule for them or just for his home counties?
And while local people along the route fear for their links, these counties have also seen some of the most notorious incidents at level crossings – at Elsenham in Essex and Beccles in Suffolk.
"East Anglia needs a fair deal and our work demonstrates the jobs that can be brought to all counties if we can improve our rail line.
British newspapers have traditionally been run by home counties, public school, Oxbridge-educated, men.
Mention of Porterfield is a reminder of the changes that Warwicks and most other counties will be forced to make next week by the first international fixtures of the season.
Yet the moves count for nothing under sweeping statewide cuts to urban water use approved this week that require hundreds of cities, counties and local agencies to reduce consumption between 8% and 36% from 2013 levels, starting 1 June.
In 1970, together with the young Turks of the civil rights movement Austin Currie and Ivan Cooper, and veteran socialist activists Paddy Devlin and Gerry Fitt, he helped found the Social Democratic and Labour party, to bind together the various strands of non-militant nationalism in the six counties.
But some corroboration comes from eminent author and political analyst Sean Trende, who found the same strong relationship among counties – that is, counties (which provide a much larger dataset) with higher levels of white evangelicals are voting in a lower percentage for Romney.
The vista from that place takes in Oakland and Angel Island, Alcatraz and San Francisco, and all of the nine counties that touch the bay.
As the Guardian reported last year, more than 77% of US counties have a severe shortage of mental health professionals.
