Living through the eye of the storm

Yesterday was interesting, not just because of the ferocity of the storm which raged through through Friday night on into Saturday evening but more so because of all the attention we received from different agencies and of course the media. Receiving flood alerts by telephone is a bit unnerving at 1.0am in the morning having already had calls on the hour through the evening but so was the call from BBC television enquiring about our safety status. I can assure you all that we have had far worse storms in the estuary with hardly any interest at all from anyone so why I wonder should this particular storm create such attention. Could it be that at last we have joined up thinking and partnership at agency level. Maybe it was a rehearsal for the Major Incident Plan! But whatever, it was nice to see the Police who popped round in their vehicle to make sure residents were OK so I have to thank everyone who was so concerned. The sceptic in me cannot help thinking that had as much concern been given to the residents of Mudeford and Purewell and Stanpit(called Mudeford Town in SMP2) in the soon to be launched Shore Management Plan then the policy decision of 'managed realignment' might have been upgraded to 'hold the line'. Those of you who witnessed the power of the storm might wonder where that realignment might finish up as a result of the 'do nothing' scenario portrayed in the plan and maybe that we deserve as much attention as that shown over the last 24 hours.I wonder how Poole Harbour fared?