Wednesday 5 February 2014

Challenges of Mother Nature

The south west of England has been battered by severe storms for weeks, in fact since well before Christmas. The winds on occasions up to 80 miles per hour, and torrential rain with burst of hail stones. When the rain has abated we have had some winter sunshine and the temperature dipping to around 2 or 3 Centigrade.

Then this week the strange weather turned up a notch and the severe gales and rain arrived. The south Devon town where I live battered by the sea and gales. The area is well known for the railway line which runs along side the sea wall. Gorgeous in the summer, but a challenging issue with the gales and rain. Dawlish, the next town along has experienced some shocking damage.

Damaged railway tracks in Dawlish, Devon
Picture courtesy of Sky News
This picture shows the devastation to the railway track. Devastation that you would never believe possible. This damage effectively means the south west of England is cut off from the rest of the Country, at least by train. The repairs will cost millions and take weeks.

Across the rest of the County, indeed the region is swamped with weather warnings, as the next picture reveals.
Flood alerts in the southwest of England
Picture courtesy of Sky News
.The forecast for the next few days predicts more and lots more of the same, and as I type this I can hear the rain and the gales outside raging.

Roll on Spring!


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:15 am

    In 2010 we spent a week in a cottage at Chumleigh so we got to know your part of the country. My brother lived in Exeter for many years but our family is all now in Australia.
    That is some damage done to the railway line. We had issues with our rail line here but it was due to poor maintenance not storm damage. I hope the line gets sorted quickly. There are quite a few older people who rely heavily on rail transport.
    I hope you get better weather soon.

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  2. Love Dawlish, so sad to see it knocked about. But that 'rope bridge' railway line is surreal ....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! That's terrible. I had no idea, even though I've seen your pictures. Stay safe!

    ReplyDelete

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