Thursday

by David Ridgway

  You are advised to keep to your normal travel arrangements. If there are any changes, please follow the instructions.

  Please keep calm at all times.

  Travel arrangements for commuters into London will inevitably include the Tube, the buses and the railways. Because the vast majority of commuters work on the north side of the river, all those people arriving and leaving London from Victoria, Charing Cross, Waterloo, London Bridge and Cannon Street stations have to cross the river one way or another. Both Grosvenor Bridge, which carries the rail tracks to Victoria, and Hungerford Bridge, which does the same for Charing Cross, therefore become strategic river crossings.

  Most commuters utilise automatic travel facilities. Oyster cards give immediate access to the systems, but if the computer systems fail, then the cards will not work and that will leave hundreds of thousands of people all wanting to have their specific query answered – and immediately.

  But the commuters into and out of London are both resigned and more than a little resourceful. Having encountered many transport disruptions, both man made and natural, over the years, the commuter has become hardened to the vagaries of travel and will stoically put up with most interruptions. On that Thursday, however, it was the inclusion of the last sentence – Please keep calm at all times – that made all the difference. And, of course, it only takes one or two to create a change from normality.

  Ashika, a cleaner at a bank in the city, was drinking coffee in the Nespresso Café on Cheapside with her friend Ruksana. Their morning’s work was already done. A small television was playing at the back of the coffee shop. Neither was taking any notice of the show because Ashika was relating a long story to Ruksana about a recent family wedding in the Punjab. Ruksana was trying very hard to listen and to concentrate on the story, but she was extremely tired and really only wanted to get home. Her eyes were drooping as she glanced round the coffee shop when, suddenly, she noticed that the television programme had been interrupted. The announcer’s face was replaced by another person and, although she couldn’t really hear what was being said, she could read the moving strap line at the bottom of the screen. She jumped slightly when she read the words ‘Please keep calm at all times’.

  Ruksana nudged Ashika and said, “Look at that!”

  “Look at what? I’m telling you about what Rahman said at the wedding.”

  “I know. I’m sorry, but there’s an announcement on the TV about the weather.”

  “The weather has been bad, but I wouldn’t have thought it needed a TV announcement.” Ashika laughed.

  “No, look!” Ruksana persisted. “It says to keep calm at all times. Why does it say that? It must be really bad and something terrible is going to happen.”

  Ashika turned in her chair and looked at the screen. “Oh my God,” she blasphemed. “I’ve got to get home.” She jumped up, knocking over her stool. The noise made the other customers look up and others saw the message on the screen. Ashika, with Ruksana in close pursuit, made for the door and started to walk rapidly through the wind and rain to St. Paul’s tube station. Other customers followed close behind. The last one out knocked into a passer-by who was on his mobile.

  “Hey! Watch it!” he remonstrated.

  “You’d better get moving, mate. London’s going to be flooded.”

  “You what?” He caught hold of the customer with his free hand. “What did you say?”

  “I’ve just seen it on the telly, pal. This weather is causing flooding everywhere and London’s going to get it.”

  A disembodied voice down the phone called, “What’s going on? What did you say?” but the pedestrian discontinued the call to send a text to his office saying, “I’m not coming back in. Just seen a message that London is going to be flooded and I’m off home.”

  That message was received by several of his work colleagues, who forwarded it to their friends. Someone put up a message on Facebook and another on Twitter with the hashtag ‘Please keep calm at all times’. And so, the best laid plans of the Environment Agency were superseded.

  Office workers began to stream out of the high-rise buildings in an attempt to get to the tube stations as quickly as possible. With them, all logic and rational thought disappeared at much the same rate.

  As Ashika and Ruksana reached St. Paul’s tube station they quickly descended to the platform for trains to Liverpool Street. They were lucky as a train arrived soon after they reached the north bound platform. The doors opened and they were able to find space, just before a small crowd emerged from the escalator. The doors shut and the train departed. It rattled its way to Bank, where there was a growing mass of people on the platform. Again, the doors opened and, after a little difficulty, closed again.

  The train set off for Liverpool Street. It stopped twice in the tunnel, jerked several times and finally reached Liverpool Street station. Most of the passengers emerged onto the platform. They travelled up the escalators until they reached the main station. Outside, it was still raining.

  Back in the city, the few who left immediately were soon overtaken by increasing numbers of people who very quickly clogged the entrances to all the tube stations. Where there were designated ‘Entry’ and ‘Exit’ systems, this flood of humanity simply ignored the notices and poured into the underground system. It was impossible for anyone to move against this tide, which was so dense that several people were carried down the stairwells without touching the stairs at all.

  On the platforms, people were pushing and elbowing until, inevitably, someone fell onto the tracks. The safety systems immediately cut off the power and all trains came to a halt. The Central Line was the first to stop working but was quickly followed by the Northern Line and then Circle and Bakerloo Lines.

  With the entrances to the Underground now blocked, people sought other routes out of the London. Many had to travel south and west to get home and were desperate to cross the river. They began to run down King William Street and Gracechurch Street towards Monument and London Bridge. Others, further west, were aiming for Southwark Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge.

  By one o’clock the streets were filled with fleeing and panicked humanity.

  Chapter 13

  Thursday Afternoon

  The depression centred over Oxford slowly started to drift to the east and fill. The effect was for the hurricane in the Channel to reduce to severe storm. The rain continued across all the south of England, with many rivers bursting their banks, causing considerable localised flooding.

  Despite the slight reduction in the force of the wind, the concentration of the sea at the eastern end of the Channel remained very high and now the tide was flowing. There was widespread flooding in northern France and Belgium.

  The northern depression to the west of Stavanger had deepened and the wind had increased to severe storm, bringing down power lines in Scotland and northern England. The wind which remained from the north, was still accompanied by heavy, drifting snow and, because the North Sea is relatively shallow, it was pushing the sea water southwards towards Holland and Denmark. The two concentrations of sea water met just before mid-day with the effect of creating a six-foot surge, travelling southeast at about 200 miles per hour. As it approached the land, the continental shelf created an undertow, which increased the height and power of the surge, but slowed its speed. Just after 1.00 pm, it surged over the protective dykes of the Zuider Zee, washing away all the vehicles on the A 7 motorway.

  The effect of the surge, when its southern end reached the Thames estuary was to batter the land below Margate, before forming a swell of water which, rather like a river bore, moved westwards up the river towards London. Just before 2.00 pm, there was considerable flooding, as the sea walls were breached along the Essex coastline. The rivers Blackwater, Crouch and Roach were all overwhelmed with seawater flooding over the sea walls and onto the local arable farmland. In Kent, the surge inundated the river Medway and the Isle of Grain, whilst the Isle of Sheppey was completely cut off
from the mainland when the bridge supports, carrying the A249, were undermined and collapsed.

  The Thames narrows significantly between Sheerness in the south and Shoeburyness in the north. To the west of Shoeburyness lies Southend on Sea and beyond that Hadleigh. At 2.00 pm, the sea surged up Hadleigh Ray, pouring over the sea defences into Canvey Island.

  The narrowing of the Thames had the effect of heightening the surge wave to about forty feet and increasing its power, but as the depth of the Thames also reduced, the speed of the surge wave slowed to about 20 miles per hour. It poured up Holehaven creek, flooding and damaging the refineries at Coryton, before sweeping over the stored and stacked containers at Thames Haven. Many containers were swept upriver before being dumped on the riverbank just north of Coalhouse Fort. The big southern bend in the river should have negated the speed and strength of the surge, but it was so high that it inundated all the southern bank up to Cliffe, leaving only Cliffe Fort as a small island in a mass of swirling, dirty, oily water.

  On reaching Tilbury, the surge quickly overflowed into the sewage works and flooded over Tilbury dock, where the lock gates were irreparably damaged. Containers, already floating in the river, were rolling into the piers and gantries that line both banks, smashing them like matchsticks and sluicing them away. The water flooded into Tilbury town as far north as the Gateway Academy.

  More containers from Tilbury dock were washed into the main river, as the tidal wave continued to flow upriver. On the south side, it forced its way up Robins creek before overwhelming Ebbsfleet United Football Club and flowing into the railway tunnel under the river that carries the Eurostar to France. The water funnelled along the tracks and into the tunnel at such speed and with such force, that it emerged like a geyser at the northern end in the Thurrock Trade Park just before the main tidal wave crashed into the oil storage depot. Much of West Thurrock was demolished and the northern approach road to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge received a severe pounding from the floating containers.

  After devastating the Manorway Business Park, the surge destroyed all the housing estates at Greenhithe north of London Road, before sweeping away all the vehicles at the storage depot, inundating the Campanile Hotel, smashing its way along Crossways Boulevard under the southern approach to the bridge and into the southern approach road to the Dartford Tunnels.

  Because of the high winds, the bridge had been closed to all vehicular traffic, which meant that the M25 orbital road could only cross the Thames through the Dartford Tunnels. Both tunnels were completely full of traffic. After breaching the flimsy fence at the side of the road, the water forced its way into the tunnels. Its force was so great that the vehicles near the entrances were simply crushed and, as the water flowed into the tunnels, it created a concertina of crushed and ruined vehicles, deep under the river. Near the surface, the drivers were killed by being crushed but, lower down, they were simply drowned. There were no survivors.

  At the northern end, the same disaster unfolded after the water had surged through the oil storage depot. It smashed its way along the new Eurostar railway, under the old local railway line, under the bridge approach road before bursting onto the approach roads to the tunnels. As the water forced its way into the tunnels, fountains spurted from the air vents on both sides of the river like the geysers in Yellowstone Park.

  Leaving Tilbury and Gravesend devastated in its wake, the tidal wave quickly inundated the Rainham Marshes as far north as the A13. On the south side, Thamesmead and Abbey Wood were completely destroyed, leaving Gallions Hill standing proudly in a sea of devastation. The tidal wave of destruction was now about 30 feet high and moving up river at approximately 20 miles per hour.

  Michael Varley’s speech of welcome at the Mansion House started at just after half past nine. It was supposed to take forty minutes, but in the event he spoke for close to an hour. As he left the top table and sat down, next to Alice, he breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief. The speech went well. His audience already appreciated the difficulties facing the city, with such uncertainty facing the country since leaving the European Union. The delegates also picked up on his mildly jocular passages, although these were few and far between.

  As Michael had a reputation for his plain speaking, together with his cautious nature as a banker, he was well respected amongst his colleagues. They knew that it was inevitable that he would cover topics the Government would rather ignore. The monthly industrial output figures were still in decline; unemployment continued to rise; inflation was also rising and the Bank of England had had no choice but to increase interest rates.

  After a short break for coffee, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressed the conference. With a dry manner and a lack of common touch, there were many in the audience who were surprised that he had remained in office for so long. The feeling in the city was that he was now playing for high stakes but his hand was very poor, as though the deck was loaded against him as well as the rest of Great Britain. Britain, nowadays, seemed to have so few allies.

  The small triumphs of various trade deals with the old Commonwealth countries never lived up to the political promises. Trade with Europe was increasingly difficult with the ever-increasing regulations. All the Presidents even including President Trump spoke warmly about the ‘special deal’ but, on practical terms, America continued to become more isolationist, demonstrating no real love of Britain. Britain was endeavouring to build an economic future based on its illustrious past, but the rest of the world remained totally indifferent.

  The Chancellor was scheduled to speak until midday. As soon as he finished, many of the guests would depart with a chosen few invited to remain to take lunch with him, the Governor of the Bank of England and several other senior city and political figures. Michael and Alice were able to slip away and return to Le Grove Investments on London Wall. They made their way, bending into the wind, trying to avoid the rain as much as possible. As soon as they had entered the door, Michael went to his office and turned on his computer to check the prices’ movements. Alice went into the small kitchen to make a decent pot of coffee, wondering why catering companies never seemed to provide satisfactory coffee. It was a mystery to her why those drinking it never seemed to complain.

  As she opened the door to Michael’s office, she could hear noises outside their front door. She took the tray to the sideboard, poured Michael a cup of coffee and took it over to him. As she bent over to put it on the desk, he put his hand on her waist.

  “I like that dress,” he remarked. “It suits you really well.”

  “Thank you.” She moved away, back to the sideboard. “Can you hear a funny noise?”

  “Funny peculiar or funny ha-ha?” asked Michael.

  “It sounds like people running and shouting, but a long way away,” she explained.

  Michael got up from his chair and went to the window. “Look at that!” he exclaimed. Alice joined him. Looking down five floors to the street below, they saw hundreds of people running along London Wall towards the Underground stations. Most had no coats and were already drenched from the rain.

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe there’s something on the news.” Alice moved to the television, which suddenly flashed into life. The first thing they saw was the announcer’s grave face and a strap line spelling out the Government’s warning. Alice gasped when she read the line ‘Please keep calm at all times’.

  “No one’s taking much notice of that,” she said, moving towards the door.

  “Where are you going?” Michael looked at her enquiringly. “There’s absolutely no point in joining that lot out there. Where will you go? What will you do? Look!” He pointed out of the window towards the big road junction with Moorgate. “The crowd is just getting bigger and bigger. I reckon no one can get into the station.” His voice began to rise with concern.

  Alice’s moment of panic had subsided to be replaced by an icy calm. “There’s obviously something much greater going on. I do
n’t know what, but it can’t be a bomb. If it’s to do with the weather, then it might be better to stay here.”

  “Stay here?” Michael interrupted. “What’s here?”

  “At the moment, we have power, light and warmth. I suggest we charge up our phones and tablets. I’ll boil some hot water and fill our thermos flasks.”

  “Fill our thermos flasks?” Michael shouted at her. “We’re not going on a picnic.”

  “No,” she replied. “But we don’t know how long we’ll be here, nor how long we’ll have power. So it’s better to be prepared.” With that she left him staring out of the window and went to the kitchen, wondering where her resolve had come from.

  Since arriving at school, David was unable to concentrate on anything other than the weather. There was no time to check his computer to see what the two depressions were doing and whether they were starting to move. He concluded correctly that the southern weather front was filling slowly and beginning to move to the east. He was so concerned that he felt it necessary to send a text to Jackie. He knew that his mother would have left her at college, but he couldn’t help feeling that events were only just beginning to unfold and he wanted to be there to see what would happen.

  At eleven o’clock, the BBC app on his iPhone announced the media release concerning the problems facing London. He knew that his father was in the city giving a speech and he presumed that Jackie’s father would also be at work. He texted Jackie again, suggesting that it would be really interesting to be in London rather than revising. They began to make arrangements for cutting school so that they could get up into the capital. They arranged to meet at midday at the railway station. He knew that the line was open again and that normal services were running.

  He walked out from school at half past eleven. Jackie left college at much the same time and they met on time at Richmond station. Jackie was wearing an old pair of jeans, a cotton blouse and thick jumper plus ankle boots and her sheepskin coat. The train left only a few minutes later and they were in Waterloo before half past twelve.