Storm Arwen arrived in the U.K. with a bang, causing damage, devastation, and destruction. With gusts of over 100 mph, it was the first red alert weather warning issued by the Met Office in a long time.
We were travelling back from our road trip to Silverstone's Lap of Lights when the the wind and rain really started to pick up.
Even though we couldn't feel it inside the MG ZS EV Long Range, we could hear it...
And the further north we headed, the worse it became...
Now, we don't live in the area where the red alert was in place, we still had to be careful as we were covered by the amber alert, meaning gusts of over 80 mph all around us. Luckily, we had decided to travel back straight after the Silverstone event, and we are all glad that we did, as even though it was a very long journey back - we got home after 3AM - it would have been far worse to be travelling as the storm intensified...
As it was, we were home during the most dangerous part of the storm. We were one of the 323,000 Northern homes that lost power that night - luckily it came back on for us relatively quickly. The North Western and Eastern electricity boards have been working non stop, and have so far restored power to 267,000 of them - hurrah!
It was a scary night though - at one point, we heard an almighty crack, rumble and crash, and scrambled to check the premises to see if both houses, garages and all of the cars were intact. It was slow going in the dark and the wind, but with torches in hand (and on head, lol) we were able to make a cursory check, knowing that we would have to wait until full daylight to see the extent of the damage. Both houses were intact, and all of the cars were too. It was time to head back inside to wait out the storm...
The next morning brought into focus the severity of the damage - not only to us, but also to our next door neighbour. There were around 40 trees reported as having blown down in the village overnight, and one of them came down on top of our neighbours car.
It was so big (and heavy) that it completely crushed their brand new VW T-Cross, and caused damage to their house (missing their quite old Mk4 Golf!) We are so thankful that they were not in their car at the time (if you look above the hedge that's behind the ZS EV, you can see the tree lying horizontally across their drive)
By lunchtime, a tree surgeon had arrived with a chipper, and was in the process of safely clearing the fallen tree.
It was now time to assess the damage on our land, as this wasn't the only tree to go.
One of our large fir trees also came crashing down, luckily missing the end of one of the houses. As you can see, it's huge.
Our neighbours to our other side also had tree related issues - one of their cherry trees pushed against the wall between our gardens, and broke the wall. With the walls help, the tree managed to stay standing.
There is still a lot of work to be done in the aftermath of the storm. Now that the wind has died down, it's making it easier to do this. The storm still has it's claws out though, as snow began to fall the next day...
As we are so close to the sea, we rarely get snow, and if we do, it normally doesn't settle. If the weather reports holds true, it seems that the Arctic conditions are here for a bit longer.
Thank you all, stay safe and warm!