In the end we did not have to turn off all the power to our building – but all the servers had to be turned off and disconnected from the supply in the server room. Just one server was left on as it runs a mission-critical application, and that was temporarily plugged into a wall socket above the water table. 

So we still had our main application, but were without access to any of our files, could not print anything, had no e-mail and no Internet access.

It was not just us either. The mail gateway and proxy server for the whole company are in our building so staff in Glasgow, Yorkshire, Birmingham and everywhere else had no external e-mails, Internet or access from home.

This is a picture showing how we ripped the floor up to see how bad the damage was and to mop up whatever could be mopped up. I just love the pathos of the roll of toilet paper there, as if that can cope. (I say "we" but I wasn't there personally.)

Dyno-Rod have been in the building all day, probing the intricate, extensive and totally undocumented network of drains which exists under our premises. Although we had identified where the water was coming in, they had to look further afield to find the blockage causing the water to back up.

The look on the IT troubleshooter's face when Dyno-Rod said they would be going in spraying high-pressure water hoses everywhere was something I did not, unfortunately, get a photo of.

This is where the water was getting in. It does look as though it was just water and not sewage, but with water which has been pouring through the streets and railway arches of Waterloo, the distinction is purely academic.

Lets put it this way: I wouldn't drink it!