Hi all and thanks for your concerns. Most of the local damage in and around Plymouth has been storm related and due to very large waves, some buildings have suffered with the sea in effect coming in at one side and going out the other, sweeping all before it. Likewise when damaging high winds/waves coincide with high tide there has been some coastal flooding. Being quite hilly any flood related problems due to high river levels are rather localised, in contrast to further east where flooding has been widespread and extensive where river flood plains have been overwhelmed.
Currently Plymouth, the 15th largest city in the UK, along with the rest of south Devon and the whole of the county of Cornwall has no rail connection with the rest of the UK due to a recent storm washing away the sea wall at Dawlish which carried the rail line along what is a picturesque but very vulnerable stretch of coast line. Delays and short term closures are not uncommon there when onshore winds and high tides coincide causing waves to wash over the line damaging trains and washing ballast away, however this time it has washed a stretch of the whole embankment away leaving the line suspended above the sea with no support whatsoever.
This photograph, whilst not taken recently, shows one of the south Devon villages that has suffered damage. This scene is much less extreme than that experienced in a recent storm.
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Most of those houses facing the sea have suffered damage, one resident described how the sea first came in a FIRST floor window and cascaded DOWN the stairs, before washing out at ground level. A friend who lives there, but behind that row of houses facing the sea, tells me that when the sea crashes against the sea wall, his house shudders since they are built on piles rather than foundations and that in extreme conditions items will fall off shelves.
As I write this the rain is once again beating on the window and the wind is picking up, currently south east which leaves the village seen above very exposed, it's due to back south or south south west later and increase in strength, which will coincide with high tide early this evening, not good news for the south coast.
We are being told that this is thought to be the last of the extreme storms and that the weather will return to a more normal winter regime at least for a few days. This week will have seen us getting a total rainfall in excess of the normal monthly average, so back to normal will come as a relief.
Barrie