England native in Maine tries to contact friends

GLENBURN – Steven Smith, 46, spent all day Thursday doing exactly what thousands of frantic people in London were doing – desperately trying to reach loved ones who possibly were hurt or killed by the four explosions that ripped through underground trains and a double-decker bus in the city’s center.

As of Thursday afternoon, the native of England was still in search of answers. What he did know was that his girlfriend, Shirley Beet, was evacuated from a train station in Brighton, in southern England, as she headed to work at a printing factory.

She was all right, but hysterically worried about a missing friend, Smith said.

“I was in tears because she was in tears,” he said Thursday.

One friend Smith spoke with Thursday learned that his wife lost her arm in one of the train explosions, Smith said.

“There’s bodies … There’s fire, there’s smoke down in the subways,” he said of his friend’s description of the destruction. Survivors remained in tunnels deep underground Thursday afternoon waiting to be rescued, he said.

Phone communication was unreliable and traffic was backed up on the city’s roads, Smith said.

“I actually think this is a lot worse than what they’re saying on the news,” Smith said.

Myles Jordan, 21, of Bar Harbor was in the middle of final examinations at a summer theater program at Schiller University in London when the explosions rocked the city, his mother said Thursday afternoon.

College officials, unsure of the cause of the blast, told students that it was a power surge and to continue with their exams. When students discovered what had happened they found that cell phones were all but useless and stood in long lines at the few pay phones to call family members.

“We got the first call from him at 8:10 this morning,” said his mother, Kate Jordan. “It was only about 30 seconds. He said, ‘I can’t talk, I’m safe, you’ll hear from me when the rest of the line gets their chance to call.'”

Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were wounded as a result of the attack, blamed on Islamic extremists and believed to be timed to coincide with a summit of world leaders in Scotland.

The British have learned to cope with terrorist activities as a result of their experience with the Irish Republican Army, said Smith, who was born in England and grew up in Old Town before moving back overseas in 1990. He is summering in the Bangor area.

Smith said he expected Londoners to manage their panic and recover after Thursday’s explosions more quickly than Americans did in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“We know how to deal with it over there. It’s always in the back of our minds,” Smith said. “Every day when you get on a train and you go to London you know you’re taking a risk.”

Meanwhile, Myles Jordan planned to fly home to Maine this weekend, according to his mother.

“I was going to be happy to see him. Now I’m going to be really happy to see him,” she said.

BDN writer Abigail Curtis contributed to this report.