Homes afloat
‘Within minutes, the water was car-door deep and gushing in’
When an angry torrent of thick brown water engulfed our home, my son’s first reaction was to rescue a pack of Mini Cheddars from the kitchen. I was about to berate him for being late when my wife Helen called. Why was there a lake the size of a park outside our house, she asked.
The first I saw of it was from the bedroom window. A steady stream of water was running down our road, first keeping to the gutters, then spreading the full length of the street, trapping commuters on little pavement islands. Showing true British grit, at least one rolled up his trousers and waded off.
Within minutes, the water was car-door deep and gushing into our front garden, down to the open-plan basement. Fire engines appeared, decanting emergency workers into the floodwaters. Two waded up our garden path in dry suits, replete with clip-on torches, floats and long poles for fishing out debris. They wanted to know if everyone was safe and I suggested they check on our elderly neighbours, Sally and Therisa. Both have basement flats and Sally, keeper of cats, is nocturnal.
Half an hour later, we would be treated to the sight of Sally being floated away on a bright orange life raft, together with several cats. None too pleased, she wanted to know why it was only her who was being subjected to rescue by boat.
Unlike the current flooding in Tewkesbury, Gloucester, which has been caused by the banks of the rivers Severn and Avon bursting, the Finsbury Park flood of 2019 had nothing to do with the weather or with climate change. It was caused by burst water mains managed by Thames Water.
When a pressurised 36in water main ruptures, it really does release a lot of water … about 1,000 litres a second. That’s around £5,000 every hour were it charged via a meter. Four hours after it started, water was still rising from the ground with a force strong enough to sweep away people and cars. More than 170 homes were flooded and the area started to resemble a vast duck pond. Several geese made impressive water landings outside our front door.
By lunch, the water was a metre high in our kitchen. The sofa was afloat, the kitchen my father got us as a wedding present was all but submerged and the French oak floor I had spent weeks fitting and polishing when we moved in 20 years ago was rehydrating. It would take months to put things right.
As global health security editor on this paper, I’ve reported from environmental disasters. I told my family that things could be worse. But my stories of people having to fight off snakes and crocodiles after the floods in Mozambique cut little ice.
For many of our neighbours, things are serious. Three weeks on the primary school is closed and will remain so for some time. Several businesses have been washed out and rebuilding their customer base may take years. And there are dozens with basement flats whose lives have been turned upside down. Several are uninsured and stand to lose tens of thousands of pounds unless properly represented.
Thames Water has presided over at least three similar floods locally in the past five years. And an internal report reveals there were 31 serious bursts in 2016 alone. Last year, the regulator Ofwat launched an investigation into their poor performance in the area of “leaks management” – a good proxy for flood risk. It was found in breach of its duties and fined £120million.
After the flood, a friendly husband and wife team sifted through and itemised our soggy belongings. Helen had been crying and I had been fighting back intrusive thoughts about what I might do if allowed into the Thames Water boardroom.
The husband was pulling things from our fridge and reading the labels. “Two tubs of taramasalata. A kilo of frozen prawns, one pack of Thai lemon grass and a jar of caviar…”
And, with that, the tears and anger evaporated. In six months’ time, the kitchen will have been rebuilt and the floor relaid and polished. That will never be the case for families I met in Mozambique or the thousands who lost everything in the Bahamas.
Not that Thames Water should be let off the hook. Ofwat tells me they agreed to pay every household forced out of their property £5,000 in compensation over and above the costs of repairing cars and homes. Oddly, Thames Water does not seem to have told anyone about that yet. I hope I’m not giving anything away.