M5 Gridlock due to flooding on 20th July 2007
Photographs and words Copyright Teresa Reynolds 22/7/07
I left Home at 8 am in Faringdon in Oxfordshire on the 20th July 2007 for an important business meeting, on what I thought was just another average day, but a bit better because it was Friday! I got to Manchester at 12.30 - it was a bit of a slow journey going north due to Police rolling roadblocks on the M40 to keep the speed down in the torrential rain - believe me it was needed because 80% of the drivers thought they were cats with 9 lives still left and were driving like idiots! But it NEVER occurred to me that the journey home after the meeting just an hour later at just before 2pm would be even MORE eventful ... well TRUTHFULLY it was actually "less" eventful - well in fact NO events happened at all eventually!!!
I crawled down the M6 to find the signs telling me the M40 was shut - no problem I thought, I'll use the M5 instead and cut across at J 11a to Cirencester and go the "pretty way" home - I passed the point of no return J4A where the M5 joins the M42 ........At that stage I still thought I would make it home to see Stella get her "Come Uppance" on East Enders at 7.30 - but as time went on I though it might realistically be the 10pm repeat instead, but then as I crawled and then sat stationery on the M5 for over 16 hrs since leaving Manchester - along wth 10,000 other stranded motorists - I realised I would be lucky to get home in time for the Sunday omnibus!
The only link with the outside world was the noise of the occasional Sea King Helicopter overhead on it's way to rescue even more distressed and vulnerable people, & seeing fire engines towing inflatable boats down the hard shoulder, and BBC Radio for Herefordshire and Worcestershire trying to keep us informed - BLESS THEM they were absolutely fabulous!
The list of names of towns & villages affected, and road closures increased every hour. What started as a radio bulletin every 20 minutes with chatty bits and other reports in-between, ended up a bit like a recent Company "Go Kart" night ,that I attended on Wednesday evening, where the tail enders get overtaken & lapped by the race leaders and then you can't tell who is winning anymore!
The "every 20 minutes" bulletin turned into just one never-ending long list. Keeping up to date with the latest tragedies in nearby areas and trying to work out where these areas were, was like trying to play a normal game of Bingo but with 1000 different game cards (but to make life interesting these cards were all written in Russian & Cantonese!!!)
I was looking on the map for names of towns & villages I had never even heard of before - just the same as the other millions of people who use the M5 who have never heard of them either. The road closure details relating to A and B roads were a bit like birthday requests on the radio - only relevant to you if you know the Birthday Boy or Girl - and if not who cares!!!! BUT then suddenly you realised that the obscure elusive A & B roads DO mean something - yet another lifeline or a route of escape has been closed - then you suddenly realise that things are getting really very serious. When you first hit the gridlock you stay optimistic and keep the egine running and lights and radio on... you then turn off the lights but keep the engine running..... then finally you turn evewrything off conscious of the falling needle on the petrol gauge and an eerie quiet falls across the motorway.
But even the reassuring sight of the emergency services trying to get down the hard shoulder becomes a distant memory because of all those selfish ******S who's lives are obviously SOOOO FAR more important than mine or yours! Even a Tesco Lorry Driver decided he was ultra important and derserved preferential treatment! These morons thought they had a "God Given" Superior right to put on their hazard warning lights (most didn't even bother!) and try and run people over on the hard shoulder who were either stretching their cramped legs, walking their dog or even personally answering nature's call!
These nasty selfish people either thought that they could get home or somewhere else before us, or for some it was just a case of getting within walking distance of Strensham Services to get their Costarbucksneropretrepublic Coffee or a fast food carbs Burger Fix ..... Hope it choked them!!!
Didn't they know there were people stranded by the floods in Tewkesbury and other nearby areas that needed those boats, those fire engines, those ambulances. Didn't they care that their cars, vans, lorries & caravans were seriously putting real lives in jeopardy.
Their defence against their selfish acts of stupidity would probable be .... I needed the loo, I needed caffeine to stay awake, I hadn't eaten all day, I was running out of petrol, I had run out of cigarettes, i I was over the hours allowed on my Tachograph, I had a flight to catch, I had children in the car, I am diabetic, my mobile phone battery had died and I needed to call my family, . ,Did they know there was a lady in labour on the Motorway to whom the emergency services could not get to due to their selfish actions? I heard her husband on the Radio pleading for help - I believe there was a midwife nearby in another car and someone else gave up their towed caravan as a makeshift maternity unit! So what does one call a child born in the middle of flooding in a caravan on the M5 - Noah? I do hope it was a boy - Namaah does not have quite the same ring!!!! (By the way, if you're wondering what was realy the name of Noah's wife....even though it is not in the Bible, according to Jewish tradition, her name was Namaah.)
I know the Radio Station did their best - I know the Highways Agency and the emergency services were at breaking point - BUT the main source of info to the radio station was from us poor so & so's out on the Motorway - not them - I saw the Gloucestershire Chief Constable on the News on the TV last night - he defended the lack of communication from the Police by telling everyone it was the Highways Agency's problem as it was the Motorway and nothing to do with the Police!
IF ONLY someone had told us on the Radio - look you are not moving for at least 5-6 hrs - you are safe get your head down and have a nap - that would have been ok - but all we heard was that the closures and flooding were getting closer and closer to us - and that things were getting worse....
All I could think of was "when are they going to tell us to climb up the embankment - when are they going to tell us to leave our cars and start walking back up the motorway to avoid the floodwater?"
Instead we got nothing - and the more we heard about what was happening in communities either side of where we were trapped the more we worried about what was going to happen to us.....
M5 Gridlock due to flooding on 20th July 2007
Photographs and words Copyright Teresa Reynolds 22/7/07
I left Home at 8 am in Faringdon in Oxfordshire on the 20th July 2007 for an important business meeting, on what I thought was just another average day, but a bit better because it was Friday! I got to Manchester at 12.30 - it was a bit of a slow journey going north due to Police rolling roadblocks on the M40 to keep the speed down in the torrential rain - believe me it was needed because 80% of the drivers thought they were cats with 9 lives still left and were driving like idiots! But it NEVER occurred to me that the journey home after the meeting just an hour later at just before 2pm would be even MORE eventful ... well TRUTHFULLY it was actually "less" eventful - well in fact NO events happened at all eventually!!!
I crawled down the M6 to find the signs telling me the M40 was shut - no problem I thought, I'll use the M5 instead and cut across at J 11a to Cirencester and go the "pretty way" home - I passed the point of no return J4A where the M5 joins the M42 ........At that stage I still thought I would make it home to see Stella get her "Come Uppance" on East Enders at 7.30 - but as time went on I though it might realistically be the 10pm repeat instead, but then as I crawled and then sat stationery on the M5 for over 16 hrs since leaving Manchester - along wth 10,000 other stranded motorists - I realised I would be lucky to get home in time for the Sunday omnibus!
The only link with the outside world was the noise of the occasional Sea King Helicopter overhead on it's way to rescue even more distressed and vulnerable people, & seeing fire engines towing inflatable boats down the hard shoulder, and BBC Radio for Herefordshire and Worcestershire trying to keep us informed - BLESS THEM they were absolutely fabulous!
The list of names of towns & villages affected, and road closures increased every hour. What started as a radio bulletin every 20 minutes with chatty bits and other reports in-between, ended up a bit like a recent Company "Go Kart" night ,that I attended on Wednesday evening, where the tail enders get overtaken & lapped by the race leaders and then you can't tell who is winning anymore!
The "every 20 minutes" bulletin turned into just one never-ending long list. Keeping up to date with the latest tragedies in nearby areas and trying to work out where these areas were, was like trying to play a normal game of Bingo but with 1000 different game cards (but to make life interesting these cards were all written in Russian & Cantonese!!!)
I was looking on the map for names of towns & villages I had never even heard of before - just the same as the other millions of people who use the M5 who have never heard of them either. The road closure details relating to A and B roads were a bit like birthday requests on the radio - only relevant to you if you know the Birthday Boy or Girl - and if not who cares!!!! BUT then suddenly you realised that the obscure elusive A & B roads DO mean something - yet another lifeline or a route of escape has been closed - then you suddenly realise that things are getting really very serious. When you first hit the gridlock you stay optimistic and keep the egine running and lights and radio on... you then turn off the lights but keep the engine running..... then finally you turn evewrything off conscious of the falling needle on the petrol gauge and an eerie quiet falls across the motorway.
But even the reassuring sight of the emergency services trying to get down the hard shoulder becomes a distant memory because of all those selfish ******S who's lives are obviously SOOOO FAR more important than mine or yours! Even a Tesco Lorry Driver decided he was ultra important and derserved preferential treatment! These morons thought they had a "God Given" Superior right to put on their hazard warning lights (most didn't even bother!) and try and run people over on the hard shoulder who were either stretching their cramped legs, walking their dog or even personally answering nature's call!
These nasty selfish people either thought that they could get home or somewhere else before us, or for some it was just a case of getting within walking distance of Strensham Services to get their Costarbucksneropretrepublic Coffee or a fast food carbs Burger Fix ..... Hope it choked them!!!
Didn't they know there were people stranded by the floods in Tewkesbury and other nearby areas that needed those boats, those fire engines, those ambulances. Didn't they care that their cars, vans, lorries & caravans were seriously putting real lives in jeopardy.
Their defence against their selfish acts of stupidity would probable be .... I needed the loo, I needed caffeine to stay awake, I hadn't eaten all day, I was running out of petrol, I had run out of cigarettes, i I was over the hours allowed on my Tachograph, I had a flight to catch, I had children in the car, I am diabetic, my mobile phone battery had died and I needed to call my family, . ,Did they know there was a lady in labour on the Motorway to whom the emergency services could not get to due to their selfish actions? I heard her husband on the Radio pleading for help - I believe there was a midwife nearby in another car and someone else gave up their towed caravan as a makeshift maternity unit! So what does one call a child born in the middle of flooding in a caravan on the M5 - Noah? I do hope it was a boy - Namaah does not have quite the same ring!!!! (By the way, if you're wondering what was realy the name of Noah's wife....even though it is not in the Bible, according to Jewish tradition, her name was Namaah.)
I know the Radio Station did their best - I know the Highways Agency and the emergency services were at breaking point - BUT the main source of info to the radio station was from us poor so & so's out on the Motorway - not them - I saw the Gloucestershire Chief Constable on the News on the TV last night - he defended the lack of communication from the Police by telling everyone it was the Highways Agency's problem as it was the Motorway and nothing to do with the Police!
IF ONLY someone had told us on the Radio - look you are not moving for at least 5-6 hrs - you are safe get your head down and have a nap - that would have been ok - but all we heard was that the closures and flooding were getting closer and closer to us - and that things were getting worse....
All I could think of was "when are they going to tell us to climb up the embankment - when are they going to tell us to leave our cars and start walking back up the motorway to avoid the floodwater?"
Instead we got nothing - and the more we heard about what was happening in communities either side of where we were trapped the more we worried about what was going to happen to us.....