“People have this idea about the River Thames, the sheer beauty of it, the sparkling sunshine on the water. But the river can turn nasty,” says Professor Hannah Cloke from the University of Reading.
On a freezing January morning 70 years ago, residents of Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary woke to gale-force winds and the terrifying spectacle of water overcoming the sea wall. There had been no warning, it was bitterly cold, the wind howled and the waters rose so quickly that residents who could not escape fast enough, had to cling on to their rooftops. Those that could not hold on slipped into the icy waters and were carried away.
The North Sea Flood of 1953 took the lives of 58 people on Canvey Island, while the entire population of the island – about 13,000 – had to be evacuated. In total, 307 people were killed in England, while in the Netherlands, 1,836 people lost their lives. The combination of wind, high tide and low pressure caused the sea to...