‘Water Water Everywhere...’

The train slowed down and came to a grinding halt. Immediately the driver of the train could be heard making an announcement on the overhead speakers. He informed us that our arrival time would be delayed by about half an hour as the train would have to stop at the following signals until they were given the go ahead to move forward to the next stop. This would unfortunately be the case for a certain stretch of the track. You could hear people groaning throughout the compartment and I was no different. Just what we needed — arriving late for a University open day for my son. We thought it would be prudent to call them and let them know of our predicament.
The train began to move very slowly and I sat gazing out of the window wondering what sort of impression we were going to make by showing up late. But then I realised why we were travelling so cautiously. On my right there were fields that were completely underwater. In fact you would be hard pressed to realise they were even fields except for the fact they were surrounded by fences, and the trees dotting the area were partially submerged. I was seeing first hand a glimpse of the effects of the recent extreme weather and flooding that had brought the UK especially the southern parts of it to its knees. The severe weather that we are experiencing in the UK has coincided with exceptionally cold weather in Canada and the USA. It appears that these extreme weather phenomena on both sides of the Atlantic were linked to a persistent pattern of perturbations to the jet stream, over the Pacific Ocean and North America (UK Met Office).

It was strange as the scene outside my window reminded me of Bangladesh. How many times has the nation been ravaged by floods destroying homes and crops and claiming numerous lives? We seem to recover from one natural disaster to be hit by another. I am always in awe of the resilience shown by our countrymen. They just seem to pick themselves up and start over again.  How do you do that when you have lost everything?
Here I was in England seeing a somewhat similar situation where thousands of people were now living with no power or having lost all their possessions in the floods or had permanent damage to their homes.  The weather has even claimed a few lives with a minicab driver being hit with falling masonry in London and an elderly passenger on a cruise ship dying after being hit by a wave.
Britain is famous for its grey wet weather but this winter has been extreme even for us. The rain has been relentless and to add to that we have had gale force winds that have exacerbated the situation. This has been the wettest winter the country has seen in the last 250 years.
Every day we read about more people being affected by the floods and it is humbling to see what devastating consequences the weather has had on so many people. The images of submerged cars left abandoned on flooded streets or rivers and roads that are indistinguishable, people barricading their homes with sandbags and sewage and flood water engulfing peoples' houses is even more disturbing. According to the Guardian almost one million homes have been without power after downpours and high winds during the last week. Recently the three thousand army personnel have been deployed to support the flood ridden communities with five thousand more troops on standby.

I was reading about a woman who lived with her son and within a day lost most of her possessions including food, clothes, shoes and even furniture as they were washed away by the flood water but more distressingly she lost items that can never be replaced such as her son's childhood photographs and clothes, her jewellery etc. Her entire ground floor had been flooded leaving her with no food and no access to her toilet and she had to use a plastic container as a substitute for the lavatory. According to her the Red Cross had managed to provide some relief items but it was only a one off and she reluctantly admitted she was not getting the help that she needed. She said she didn't know whether other people in her situation were receiving the help they needed as she had no power and therefore no access to a television to see what was going on.
We hear about relief not reaching the neediest in time due to difficulty in accessibility or delays due to bureaucracy especially in developing countries but recently the UK government has come under criticism for its handling of the situation.
The UK Met office states that 'although there is no definitive answer on the possible contribution of climate change to the recent storminess, rainfall amounts and the consequent flooding' which they suggest could be partly due to the variable nature of UK weather and climate, they do go on to state that, 'There is also an increasing body of evidence that shows that extreme daily rainfall rates are becoming more intense, and that the rate of increase is consistent with what is expected from the fundamental physics of a warming world.'
The Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband seems to be of a similar opinion where he said that, “In 2012 we had the second wettest winter on record and this winter is a one in 250-year event. If you keep throwing the dice and you keep getting sixes then the dice are loaded. Something is going on." If these weather conditions are attributable even partly to climate change, then the Government needs to take long term initiatives to deal with what may become a recurrent situation in the UK.  
Although there seems to be a respite from the storms, large parts of the country are still on severe flood warnings. It may take months for those affected by the floods to even begin to rebuild their lives. Due to the fact that these people are living in areas that are most likely to be affected by torrential rain and flooding, one can only hope that they are protected in the future and preventative measures are taken to ensure their safety and welfare. I look out of the window on the train and know that I am one of the lucky ones to have a dry home and warm bed to return to unlike thousands of others in the UK.