Storm Eunice

Storm Eunice and hoped for genetic cul de sacs

Storm Eunice roared in from the Atlantic and arrived here in the UK on the morning of 18th February 2022. We braced ourselves for a semi lock down with people advised to work from home, only travel when it was absolutely essential and the closure of schools.

We British citizens on this so called "sceptered isle" having already gone through two years of a pandemic and its restrictions are now well versed in how to cope with staying at home. So, this semi was nothing special and took on the aura of a routine.

The news coverage on TV showed how the storm was advancing and what the extent of the damage it was wreaking in its path. Trees were felled by its ferocity blocking roads, blocking railway lines and snapping power lines that did their best to stop them falling to their deaths. Images showed how waters were rising on rivers threatening widespread flooding as old bridges braced themselves against the powerful currents.

Along the coast journalists with their entourage of camera and production crews reported from near sea walls, cliffs and promenades as fierce winds tried to push them over and the waves threatened to engulf them. All in the cause of bringing the news to us, the listener, the reader or the viewer in the warm secure comfort of our own homes.

BUT, bold and upper case chosen most deliberately to convey my own personal gob smacking shock, they were not the closest of people to the unfolding tempest oceanus. There were people photographed and filmed, allegedly from the same species as the majority of us, standing within the murderous reach of Neptune's murderous tentacles. Some looked as though they should have reached the age where they were old enough to know better. The small mercy with this demographic is that they had reached the age beyond child breeding and therefore would not be passing on anymore of their genes to subsequent generations. However, it appears the damage has already been done.

And here is the proof. A much younger demographic who for some reason known only to themselves were closer to the action than their elders and the journalists. Maybe they had not lost the feeling of personal immortality or felt so hopeless about finding decent jobs, getting on the housing ladder and, may we be forever grateful on this one, having a family of their own.

Could people be anymore stupid in the eyes of a storm? Yes.

One image from this extreme weather came from near Liverpool. It showed a team of volunteers from the Coastguard dressed in their all weather kit on a beach at New Brighton. There they were dissuading a group of people wearing only swimming trunks from doing some wild swimming in the waters from the Irish Sea that were finding landfall on the coast of the Mersey Estuary.

I have a wish on the behalf of humanity. That is that for the overall survival of our species that those people who did take what to me were highly unnecessary and dangerous risks do not, and I repeat " do not" pass their genes or DNA that carry innate intelligence on to subsequent generations and take up residence in genetic cul de sacs.

Utter helplessness

The winds increased during the morning. All the while we were hunkered down in the house listening to its attacks on everything in its way including the fence at the top of our garden. We watched as the wind made it oscillate more wildly. We knew the inevitable would happen eventually but did not know the when.

All the time we felt helpless as there was absolutely nothing we could do as we watched. We had no fence posts that would have support the fence and no tools to put those fence posts in. Maybe we would be lucky and the worst of the storm would pass before the inevitable happened which it did. Two posts snapped at ground level and the length of fencing they supported fell into the public path behind our house. It lay there strangely peaceful away from the wind.

Luckily while the storm was swirling around us we were able to arrange for someone to come and repair the fence after the winds abated and before darkness set in.

It was that feeling of helplessness that made me wonder what it must be like for people living in other parts of the world which are at the mercy of the elements more than us here in the UK. All we lost was some fabric used to protect the small cold frame we have from the frost but those people elsewhere in the world; what they must feel when they can watch as they lose everything to the wind, the rain, the tide or earthquakes. Not just them as individuals but whole communities, infrastructure and support services wiped out. That must be what feeling "helpless" is like.

Drinking habits revealed

While I sat in the home office distracted by the wind, the rain and frequent views of the fence I heard the tinkling sound of bottles rolling gently down our neighbor's driveway. Their glass recycling box had been overturned and contents made their bid for freedom. Errant bottles that once contained Prosecco, Merlot or lager escaped from the driveway and in abeyance to Newton's laws of gravity accelerated off down the hill. As they rounded the corner heading towards the steeper part of the hill the disheveled neighbor set off in full pursuit like a shepherd after their sheep. All empties were safely gathered in unbroken and returned to the recycling box no doubt to be added to over the weekend.