The Isle of Wight received a battering overnight with the full force of the storm hitting Island coastline.
Paul Berry from Blake’s Longshoremen in Ventnor spent much of the night working in the strong winds and heavy rain to save their huts from further damage.
This was despite preparations being made to protect their beach concession business ahead of the severe weather.
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Berry: “Ventnor is a very unique place”
Paul got in touch with OnTheWight to share the news and remind readers of Ventnor’s unique position,
“We were down there most the night, although preparations were made to protect our business from the weather, which was pretty well forecasted spot on with a slow moving cold front that had a strong southerly wind at a steady 30, gusting 50 knots for 12 hours or more, leading up to high water at around 02:20 this morning which was 4.8 metres.
“This is the worst kind of wind direction that drives the sea onshore and straight up the beach; over the road. This isn’t a message of sympathy, just to bring home that Ventnor is a very unique place.”
Berry: “Ever-increasing risk to keep beach business running”
Paul finished by saying,
“All of our huts get removed at the end of the year however, in front of our tea hut we had built up the wooden staging area in order to protect it in the hope we didn’t have to remove it each year (it’s been there six years).
“It is an ever-increasing risk to keep the Blake’s beach business running in Ventnor that is largely down to the love of the town and the opportunity to work on this stunning beach.
“It is though very difficult to expand on our business when we are in such an area where we are fairly unprotected against the type of weather we’ve had throughout the night”
Across the Island many households were without power and the Needles registered the wind gusting at 93mph by midnight last night.
Image: headline image © Paul Berry
