After the storm . . .

Photo of the R. Cothi in spate (one spring, judging by the leaves on the trees.)   It was almost definitely about the same level yesterday.

Well , THAT was a wild and woolly weekend!  Storm Ciara arrived like an express train and lasted for far longer than she was welcome.  I didn't sleep from 1.15 a.m. onwards on Saturday night as it was so noisy, I was too hot in bed and the arthritic bit in my neck was giving me gip because I had been bending over some x-stitch.

We had a Fair booked for Sunday.  The alarm was set for 5.15 a.m. so we could "take a rain check" so to speak.  Outside it was wet and windy but we thought our journey to a Fair was "doable", as indeed it turned out to be.  Trees down - but on the other side of the road - and lots of debris about, some bits of dead branch hurled into the ground like javelins.  There was standing water in parts too.  However, we got there, set up and I got my first soaking just from parking the car half a mile away.  Lots of people had cancelled at the last minute (the sensible ones?) but lots, like us, had braved the weather, including several friends of ours from Pembrokeshire (one had to get up at 3 a.m. to set off at 4).

It started off quiet but then the Fair got very busy and we had customers.  In fact, it was like the good old days and it was very worth while going.  We are trying to get rid of old stock and yesterday was good for that.

The building we were in was peppered with leaks and there was a little collection of dustbins collecting water in one area.  As the day went on, fusillades of hail pounded the roof and it was incredibly noisy with the storm ripping yet more tiles from the roof.  Someone's going to have a bit of a repair bill!

Driving home in the daylight gave us some idea of how the area had been hit by the storm, and there were a lot more roadside trees down (but dealt with).  There was standing water on the roads, and pouring pinkly (the area has red soil) from gateways and through hedges.  In one muddy field, sheep were stood hunched up, pale pink from the soil, in a deep pink gloop of mud.  They looked thoroughly fed up.  The rain, when it lessened a little, was picked up and spun by the wind, like lace curtains in an open window.  The lower fields beside rivers were either under river water or so saturated with rain that they became lakes.  The roadside river was the colour of a mug of cocoa.

When we got home, we watched the news and saw terrible flooding in the Calder Valley (where due to the geography, most homes and businesses are of course in the valley bottoms . . .)  Then the moment the back wall of a riverside guest  house in Hawick was undercut by the floodwater and collapsed into it.  Dreadful flooding up in Cumbria too and other parts of the country suffering.

We drove home the top way as we thought our river might be across the bottom lane (I think the river was just about inside the banks at that point).  

Now I am waiting for BT to come out and replace our Home Hub.  We have had problems with the line and broadband for weeks but two previous visits to our home have not happened.  If this one doesn't I shall tell BT where to get off as there are two local companies who now supply super-fast wi-fi broadband to homes along the Towy valley, and at the present Tam has set up her spare mobile in the window and that is giving me 5 - 6 Mb/s . . .

They are calling Ciara the "storm of the century" - I am sure there have been - and probably will be - worse.  1987 springs to mind - that was definitely much worse.