transcript

Britain snowed under

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MARCO WERMAN: Londoners are trudging through nearly a foot of snow tonight. That's a pretty impressive snowfall, even if you live in the US Midwest or here in Massachusetts. In London, it was enough to disrupt travel, close thousands of schools, and bring chaos to southern England. All of London's bus services were cancelled for several hours today, and only a few subway lines were working fully. The World's Laura Lynch reports from a white and snowy London.

LAURA LYNCH: This is big. So big that Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed the nation in the gravest tones, offering reassurance.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: I just want to say we are doing everything in our power to ensure that the services – road, rail, and airports – are open as quickly as possible, and we are continuously monitoring this throughout the course of the day.

LYNCH: In London, a little snow goes a long way toward making a mess of the entire transportation system. Only a few cars bothered to venture out onto the roads. The weatherman couldn't hide his embarrassment.

WEATHERMAN: I can tell you, the Scandinavians, the Canadians, the Russians are looking at us thinking, “Honestly these Brits with the snow.” But we don't get to practice driving in this kind of weather. It doesn't happen very often. 18 years ago is the last time this happened.

LYNCH: You could forgive people here for trying to find a bit of fun in the midst all of this. Millions didn't make it into work. Instead, they came out to play – sliding down hills, making snowmen, and like Tom Clark, just walking around enjoying the scene.

TOM CLARK: You know, there's lots of people out on the streets. It's like a really nice atmosphere today. Everyone is talking to each other and throwing snowballs and just really nice to be out exploring today.

LYNCH: In recent weeks, people here have been buried under a blizzard of another kind. The bad economic news keeps piling up. It's so bad, there's a nasty new nickname making the rounds. “Iceland on the Thames” is meant to label Britain as another financial basket case. So maybe it's not so bad to forget about it all -- just for a day? That's what this lawyer is doing.

LAWYER: Yeah. Well, the office is completely empty. I'm heading home early. But hopefully I'll get home in time to play with the kids in the garden. So most people are quite happy to have the excuse to stay at home for the day, I think.

LYNCH: Most – not all.

MAN: It's lovely. It's very nice. I mean, it's very un-British because we're never prepared for it. We've been saying on the news for three days this storm's coming. As soon as it comes, everything goes to pot.

LYNCH: All right. Yes, there are problems. And there's a cost to shutting down most of London for the day. Business-types estimate it at more than a billion pounds. With the weak currency, that's just over $1.4 billion dollars – and it's money the country can ill afford to lose. With word the bad weather will continue, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, can do little more than pray.

BORIS JOHNSON: Obviously, in an ideal world we wouldn't have record snowfalls and I won't say this is the wrong kind of snow. I would say it is the wrong kind of quantity. And my message to the heavens is you put on a fantastic display of snow power, and I think that's probably quite enough.

LYNCH: Probably not for those who understand how rare this weather really is. A snowy escape from the dreary reality of job losses, home repossessions, and bankrupt businesses isn't such a bad thing. For The World, I'm Laura Lynch, in London.

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