By Zach Williams on behalf of Coastal Networks / Your Weymouth & Portland
Sirens sounded again on Portland today as high wind and waves posed a threat to the village of Chiswell.
The isle of Portland was cut-off from the mainland for a number of hours in the daytime as water crashed over the beach and flooded the Portland Beach Road – the only way on and off the isle.
Sandbags lined the streets in the village of Chiswell as pebbles and water caused havoc to home owners, pedestrians and drivers.
Susie, a local teacher told us that the incident was “Absolutely devastating”. “The pathways are all broken up, there are pebbles all the way down the roads, people can’t get their cars up and down – it’s an absolute mess.”
We asked whether the flood defences did their job. Connor, a supermarket worker said that the flood defences didn’t work for “this scale of waves, wind and weather conditions.” Harvey, a local student said he thought that the previous storm damaged the defences, which hindered the protection this time, he added “they’ve managed to clear it quickly, which is good.”
Early in the evening The Cove House Inn, a pub that sits on Chesil Cove already had some damage to the top windows and their seating area asked everybody to leave as they attempted to place their shutters up to stop any more damage being done to the property.
With more poor weather forecast for the next few days, time will tell whether this level of flooding is going to be a regular occurrence for Portland, or if this has been an isolated incident.
Zach Williams,
