The Geography Department
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The Geography Department |
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Suffolk Surge 9 November 2007
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Arrival at Dunwich was via the road to the church, the main route being closed - although opened when it was realised this route was blocked by floodwater! Dingle Marshes were clearly flooded, as was the Dunwich River and the road to Bridge Farm. |
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Dingle Marshes has become one large lake, stretching away to Walberswick in the north, to the rising ground in the west and the shingle barrier beach in the east. Southwold can be seen 'shining' through in the centre shot! |
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In the High Street a householder examines a flooded garage which belongs to a house up for sale. Not a good day for viewing! |
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The margins of this new lake have straw-coloured surrounds; this is loose dried grass driven to the eastern shore by the strong westerly winds. Beneath this apparent shoreline are several feet of water! |
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The 'floating' shoreline from the car park at Dunwich Beach, now with drastically reduced capacity! |
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Several views of the waves breaking on the barrier beach, and overtopping it almost. Further north the beach has been breached and the marshes flooded. |
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The frailty of the land, just a narrow strip of shingle, seen with vigorous waves, despite westerlies! In the centre the water seeps over the crest of the beach. |
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Beneath Dunwich Cliffs the new 'black sausage' geotextile defences appear to be holding on to the shingle beach. |
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Looking south towards Dunwich Heath and the Sizewell nuclear power stations; the lower sheep fencing was reached a number of times, but the cliff foot was spared even on this exceptional occasion. |
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A last look at the drama at Dunwich Beach, before the realisation came that the sea was going down, half an hour before high water ... so the surge had leapt ahead and the danger was receding. |
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A look over Dingle Marshes and its extension into the car park; the depth of water can be judges by the dog bin, and the floating wheelie-bin! |
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The fishing boats and winches at Dunwich Beach, with new lake and floating golden grass mat! |
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Dunwich Heath
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The view southwards from Dunwich Heath showed a breach, again, with flooding into the Minsmere Reserve of the RSPB. |
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Despite the surge, if not the high tide, having passed, the waves were regularly overtopping the low dune crests and attacking the beach vegetation, right, which dripped with returning saltwater. |
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The shingle beach gives was to low consolidated sandy tops here, and is being actively eroded by the high waves. Once an area fenced off for breeding birds, the marine transgressions have removed the markers and, of course, the nesting habitat. |
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Sizewell
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The height of the sea can be accurately gauged by looking at the inlet and outlet towers; they appear squat in the sea. |
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If tide and surge had coincided the waves would have overtopped the shingle and got into the dune slack area, damaging the dunes and their binding vegetation. |
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Biggish waves high on the beach at Sizewell, high enough to reach a clump of established marram. |
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Despite the climatic threats, the day was a very pretty one, and opportunities to photograph the landscape in good, but low-angled, light, were not to be missed! |
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It is impossible to resist photographing the beach and its environs when at Aldeburgh; here fishing boats pose (they do pose, don't they) in front of the White Lion Hotel. |
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The waves at Aldeburgh came to the top of the shingle gradient (it is flat thereafter to the low sea wall) and, on the right, bold refugees from the storm! |
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The Brudenell Hotel, the primary watering hole in Aldeburgh, was close to getting its glass patio dividers shattered by shingle driven over the sea wall ... at the southern end of the town. |
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The old Customs House (left) was within the area expected to flood if the banks of the River Alde failed. On the seafront promenade traditional door boards are employed ... but summing up the fear and uncertainty is the chap looking out of his window with his defences before him. |
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The Inshore Lifeboat team move into the town; it was the lifeboatmen that went from shop to shop and house to house advising residents to leave. On the right is the congestion from traffic leaving the town (and fresh traffic was prevented from entering by the police at the roundabout outside Aldeburgh a mine away). In the centre the sightseers wait on the promenade! |
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RNLI men moving from house to house, left, and the police roadblock isolating the road to Slaughden and the yacht club. |
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