Sarah's place takes a battering

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This is a video of what the weather has done to Aberystwyth, home of Sarah's university in 'Cold Feet' and 'Sisters'. At the end of the video, you get a look at the hill they go up in the panoramic railway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25604697

Comments

Good grief!

Aber was my alma mater, and it's taken several hammerings by storms in the past. The town used to have a long pier, but it got truncated to little more than the pier head complex back in the 1900s, while the sea wall at Victoria Terrace (where the reporter was standing) was completely destroyed and rebuilt in the 1930s. Several properties along Marine Terrace and Victoria Terrace have basements below street level, so would probably have been severely flooded in these storms (the entire seafront and much of the town centre is subject to Flood Warnings). There was an unusual incident when I was studying there, in that the section of beach between the end of the prom and Constitution Hill (the hill Steph mentioned, known as "Consti" to locals and students, with a funicular railway leading up to a cafe / gift shop / camera obscura on the summit) gained a temporary tourist attraction in the form of a giant buoy that had broken loose from Milford Haven and washed ashore.

The University have delayed the start of the exams period by a week and issued an advisory (extract below - unsurprisingly the alumni FB group has plenty of info about the storms!):

Due to the severe weather conditions currently affecting Aberystwyth, we are deferring the start of the University examinations period by one week (these will now start on 13 January 2014). This also includes hand in dates for assessment work.

Due to the severity of the flooding and the effect on University and private residences, on the seafront and the town centre, we kindly request that you do not attempt to travel to Aberystwyth this weekend.

There's also this video from yesterday, courtesy of a student who lives in one of the former Alexandra Hall student flats. Bear in mind the promenade (behind the low concrete wall) is at least 12 flagstones deep and the beach normally at least 2m below, so that gives an indication of the height of the tide and force of the waves.


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Video

I watched that. I had a friend living a few doors away, and there is a still pic on the MSN site showing the smashed foundations of the sea wall.

We seem ...

... to be getting a lot of wind and rain over the past few weeks. I guess those pictures in Aberystwyth are typical of what's been happening mainly on the south and west coasts of the UK. What seem like idyllic locations in good weather can be just the opposite in bad. We've been lucky in Derbyshire. Although we've had high winds and rain it's been much less so than other areas. Of course the sea would have to very high to reach us 100 miles from the coast :)

I'm old enough to remember well the devastating east coast floods in 1953 when 100s lost their lives both in England and the Benelux countries. Apparently the North Sea tidal surge a few weeks ago was worse than 1953 but better defences and earlier warnings meant that the effects were much reduced. The Trent flooded as far upstream as Nottingham in '53. I was sailing a rubber dinghy in my uncle's field and really enjoying myself :)

I suppose we should be grateful that it's been relatively mild with temperatures only dropping below zero at night.

Robi