February 19

Storm over!

You can’t blame the met office for trying to keep us safe, and that is what they did this week forecasting Storm Eunice racing across the Atlantic at 200 mph and hitting Britain with a predicted record 100mph force.

But it was a damp squib in Penarth.

I woke up yesterday, my apprehension made worse by screaming newspaper headlines, Storm of the Century.

To Sunshine! The branches of the mass of trees overlooking Bridgeman Court were shaking but no more than they had over the past few days. And the sea was not a raging monster.

In fact it was a typical rough winter day, as Therese our neighbour in the seafront Windsor Court told me.

High tide came and went, not even spilling onto the Esplanade.

In the fifteen years we lived at Windsor Court I can only remember three times when the road was flooded and even then the water did not enter our foyer with just one step to prevent it

We were much luckier than some parts of  Britain especially Scotland and the north of England, but thankfully, storm Eunice was less dangerous than had been feared. 

The main BBC television news bulletins were filled with dramatic pictures of fallen trees that cased one death and damaged houses and there was the inevitable ‘chaos’ on the railways although advance warning had been given that most services would be cancelled.

Once again I blame the media for making a mountain out of a hill, of exaggerating and adding to people’s worry. 

They love those ‘War declared headlines. It sells papers.

I am glad this time it was a less serious than threatened

It was a case of all’s well that ends well - more or less.