At the end of February three major storms, Dudley, Eunice and Franklin battered the UK in the space of one week. The most ferocious of these was Storm Eunice, which resulted in a new UK record for the highest ever recorded gust of wind, a staggering 122mph on the Isle of Wight. Eunice absolutely hammered the south coast of the UK, closing schools, rail networks and motorways, tearing off roofs and bringing down power lines. Dozens of flights were cancelled and hundreds delayed at airports across the UK, while ferry companies stopped all services between Dover and Calais.
An estimated 1.4 million homes across the UK were left without electricity and running water for days, while engineers worked around the clock to restore power. Here at the Castle, we were without water and electricity for three consecutive days. Somewhat fortuitously, the storm coincided with the Mid-Term Trip to Liverpool, so our students at least were unaffected. The first point of call on their trip, some might say rather ironically given what was occurring above ground at the time, was Hack Green Nuclear Bunker in Cheshire.
One news agency referred to Storm Eunice as a ‘weatherbomb’. The Met Office even added London to the red weather warning amid danger to life, something that has never happened before. The Estate was closed to the public for their own safety, and once it was safe to do so, our Estate Team worked tirelessly to clear a number of fallen and irreparably damaged trees in our ancient woodlands. In all, we estimate that around thirty trees across our estate fell afoul of Storm Eunice one way or the other, so it was quite a mammoth task.
The Estate Team has a comprehensive Tree Risk Management Plan in place for monitoring the condition of our trees, allowing them to act quickly to pre-empt danger and prevent treefalls before they occur. Once Storm Eunice had passed, they redoubled their efforts to report and take swift action after any changes they noticed to the condition, structural stability, or integrity of the trees on the Estate.
It was an outstanding effort!