Storm Bert was still raging as we went to print for the December edition of the newsletter (in late November). We had just over two days of battering wind which left our village Christmas tree cowering, whilst other parts of the country suffered widespread and severe flooding as 80% of November’s average rainfall came in just 48 hours. Apart from some wind damage to fences and gates, it appeared that Camber got off quite lightly compared with other areas. We thought we would have a little respite once the winds died down. This was not to be – because Storm Conall arrived with gusto just 24 hours later!
Storm Conall mainly hit the south and south-east of England, bringing a couple of weeks’ worth of rain in just one night. Whilst it was nothing like the scenes from around the UK that we were seeing on the news in the aftermath of Storm Bert, Storm Conall brought a lot of water to our village, flooding roads and gardens. The wind gusts were easily as strong as those of Storm Bert, whipping up some big waves at the beach. Thankfully it did not coincide with a long tide, and moved on quite quickly, lasting less than 24 hours.
Storm Darragh, though, was a different beast! Beginning on the evening of 6th December, Storm Darragh raged relentlessly until the end of the following day. The Met Office issued Red Weather Warnings – the strongest they can issue – for 13 counties across the west of the United Kingdom. Thankfully, our little corner in the south east was only under a yellow warning this time! There had been a prelude to Storm Darragh during the night of 4th / 5th December, bringing a taste of what was to come, which was followed by a lovely, calm sunny day (although the sun forgot to switch on the ‘heat’ button as well as the ‘light’ button!) That night of wind even managed to blow our Christmas tree upright again for a short while!
During the first full evening of Storm Darragh, on 6th December, the wind wasn’t as bad as the night before but there was heavy rainfall, which exacerbated problems for those areas already flooded by Storm Bert. Our Christmas tree managed to lean to an all-time-low angle, never seen before, but didn’t actually fall over completely. Once the wind subsided, Parish Councillors Peter and Trevor Atkinson set about the task of righting our village tree so that all was well in time for Christmas. Well done, and thank you, to them for addressing it, and so promptly after the storm. It was wonderful to see it upright again!
New Year’s Eve brought in another raging storm but, for some reason, the Met Office chose not to name the storm, despite wind speeds reaching 60+ mph around the south coast. The rain held off until the afternoon of New Year’s Day and, by teatime, it was all over! Around the UK, many new year events were cancelled due to the forecasted strong winds but that was not the case for the people of Camber! Over 100 people braved the winds to celebrate and see in the new year at The Camber Castle! Camber folk are quite hardy to a bit of wind and it was not going to stop the party!
