Jon O'Rourke wrote:


Couple of BBC reports :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5369650.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/5369636.stm

Jon.

The Cornwall report is a bit of a joke.

The sea conditions in Penzance were nothing out of the ordinary.
'People gathered to watch the sea splash over the promenade' Wow, how
rare. In a decent gale you wouldn't be doing that!

Anyone who travels to Cornwall by train in the when it's anything like
a bit rough know's there'll be problems at Dawlish, the picture shows
little more than a choppy sea. The fact is the sea wall there is
knackered, it's widely known the sea gets behind it and there are huge
hollow areas.

'The sea threatens to wash over the quayside at Looe'. In other words
it didn't, but as a BBC reporter had ventured across the Tamar, he had
to say something. Of course the fishing fleets were in port following
the recent forecasts.

There were problems with the boats in the Fal, and many south coasts
harbours, mainly because the small boats had not been moved out of the
water for the winter. (This typically happens in Penzance, Mousehole
etc in late Oct. - so strong winds in September damage more boats than
severe gales in November) In particular there were boats in the Fal in
very exposed spots.

It's all overhead power lines in Cornwall so power cuts happen all the
time, they only get reported when the press feel a need to do so.

What I find irritating is that conditions are often far worse with no
news coverage, or a reporter ventures as far as Brighton to show a
lumpy sea about the size exposed parts of western Britain see with a
decent sea breeze. But because of all the warnings, the BBC & others
were desparate to find something.

The trouble is, when the press so overhype a minor event, people take
little note when we get a really severe gale, which does happen here
not infrequently.

Grumpy
Penzance