Storm a blowing in!

I used to live on the Cherwell flood plain, lizg. Last flooding 1998 though it didn't affect our house. Quite close (our street even) but... well, phew...

Waves come over Blackpool sea wall quite often but do not usually cause serious flooding. I had a student summer job on the trams in 1974 and they had to stop the trams one summer day because of seawater and sand on the tram rails cutting out the electricity circuit. People are mad going close to the edge on such days, even with the railing fences.

Wind was really scary here in the North of Scotland, we also had thunder and lighting along with the noise of the wind, very little sleep that night.
Trees down everywhere, I lost two beautiful Roddy bushes, so strange that they could have just been ripped out of the ground. Wendy house now in bits and scattered around the garden.
During the storm I just thought how the poor people of the Philippines must have felt. Glad everyone on the east coast is ok after the tidal surge.

Yes thatbags we do have reasonable sea defences but only up to the 100 year storm. We are designated a flood plain I believe so insurance is high.

Forgot to say we stayed at the new development in New Brighton last year and it was great to see the area being improved. Such a shame about the flooding .

the tide was very high in Blackpool but still people were going to the sea wall to take photos. They have no idea how quickly a wave can suck you in! North Pier was badly damaged

Just heard most of the seals and their cubs on the beach at Horsey survived and got up onto the dune. Some lost pups still looking for their mums though.

thatbags I think the bungalows you are referring to were at Hemsby not Great Yarmouth. The sea has been eroding that area for years.

Was wondering how you were getting on number- relieved to hear that all is well with you and yours. I hope.

Glad you're all OK number

We`re in Boston, just up the coast from Norfolk, where they`ve had it very bad, especially around Hemsby. Boston town centre was pretty badly hit when the sea defences failed, and St. Botolph`s parish church, the famous Boston Stump, was very badly flooded. We live on a river bank, well, canal, or drain, to be more correct, and we were under the impression that as it stayed dry around us, the devastation was confined to the town, little realising till yesterday morning that the road that goes past the top of our bit of the bank was actually flooded, so we were very lucky. Youngest son lives just off the town centre, his road was under water, but it didn`t get in the house, thank goodness.

I see Great Yarmouth has a sea wall. Where the beach houses were didn't. Ergo, erosion will happen.

But sand dunes are shifters.

Are there sea defences around your area of reclaimed land, lizg?

A good deal of Manhattan is reclaimed land. Nothing wrong with that if it is properly done.

Thanks nfk. If the houses were further back when built people won't have been surprised by the further erosion caused by Xaver, then? Off to look at the geology of great Yarmouth once I've posted this.

Actually, the houses at the bottom of the hill where I live are built on an old beach from when sea levels were higher. The ground has risen too since the last ice age ice retreat.

A large section of our town is built on reclaimed land and our house is built on this part.

They were rather further back when they were built Bags. And the whole of Great Yarmouth is built on a sandbank. It's a port. Many much bigger cities are built similarly.

Ignorant? Wilfully blind?

Houses built on sand dunes will succumb to tidal surges. Tidal surges happen. It's stupid to allow building on sand dunes. Left to themselves they act as natural barriers and flood defences but they move.

I hope nobody was in any of those beach houses but really, if you build on a beach what the hell do you expect?

It makes me cross when people are so ignorant (or wilfully blind) about nature and natural forces.

We ought to take a register to make sure everyone is safe. The sight of those homes slipping into the sea was horrendous.

Glad you got the wine and chocolates Iam64 but your story made me laugh. (Going a bit off topic, it reminded me when I was driving my very elderly VW on the motorway. Smoke was coming from the engine so I stopped and called for assistance. Me: My car's smoking. Police reply: Is it old enough?).

Sending best wishes to any granfriends who may have got caught up in the nasties.

Good to read that flood defences worked.

A friend sent me a message to say the New Brighton had taken a bit of a hammering. We have been really lucky in South Cheshire, high winds and rain yesterday but nothing like the rest of the .

Take care everyone.

Lots of places under water this morning in New Brighton,worst affected area ofcourse was the new development on the River Front a well known area for flooding when the tide is up and the weather bad,all the local restaurants and Morrisons under water everyone evacuated to the top floor in the Casino until the Fire Brigade could help the worst time was just as the children where coming home from school and some of the little faces where filled with terror as the water must have been about 3/4ft deep in places.I feel so sorry for the people in the houses down there it will take ages for them to recover and dry everything out after this.

I hope everyone has survived the night without mishap. Being flooded in your home must be a truly horrible and frightening experience.

Photos are coming through of flooding at Yarmouth and of a wave breaking over Cromer Pier. I hope it survives ok.

We have seen some pretty horrific footage of Rhyl and Newcastle on the news here in NZ. Fingers crossed for all gransnetters in affected areas.