Tidal Wave Heading For England's East Coast Poses 'Extreme Danger To Life'

[Purveyor]

Source: Daily Mail UK

A three-metre tidal wave is predicted to surge in the North Sea in the next 12 hours posing an "extreme danger to life and property", experts have warned.

Coupled with storms and high tides, the wave could leave swathes of the east coast under water, according to the Environment Agency.

A combination of gale force winds off the coast of Scotland and high tides are expected to cause floods which could breach sea defences.

• Nine severe flood warnings issued by Environment Agency

• Surge expected to hit east coast in next 12 hours

• Police on standby to evacuate homes

• Dartford Creek and Thames barriers closed

The surge is expected to hit the Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex coastline from early tomorrow morning.

About 8,000 properties in Great Yarmouth and 1,800 in Lowestoft could be at risk.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called a special COBRA Cabinet Office meeting to coordinate an emergency reponse.

John Healey, minister of state for local communities, said: "COBRA will be on full alert throughout the night, and the Prime Minister will be keeping in close touch and keeping on top of things."




Read more: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23420144-details/Tidal%20wave%20heading%20for%20England's%20east%20coast%20poses%20'extreme%20danger%20to%20life'/article.do

[Ian David]

1. Before anyone else has a question, "08.11.07" is British for "11/08/07" n/t

[regnaD kciN]

6. Will it hit on 09.11...???

It must be the terraists doing!!! :scared:

[dipsydoodle]

13. No

11/08 is American for 08/11 :rofl:

Said as the 8th day of Novemember. Never quite puzzled how it got changed over your side.

[happyslug]

24. From what I have read, you changed we didn't

The Change seems to have occurred in the early 1800s (Post-Napoleonic War). The older system (used by Americans to this day) fell out of use in Europe as most Countries adopted a variation of how the German (Prussian) Military was doing their dates. The Prussians adopted a Date-Month-year system where the digits for the day and year was separated by the month written in letter form (i.e NOV not 11). Thus today's date in 8Nov2007. This is called "military" time in the US, for the US Military uses it (but only since about 1900, prior to that conventional dates seems to be used).

Anyway, Europe seems to adopt the Prussian dating system in the 1830-1860 period. England followed for England had extensive trade with Europe and had been allied with Prussia against Napoleon (and stayed close to Prussia till about 1900 when Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to build a Fleet, undoing Bismark's famous comment, Germans were land rats, England were Sea rats and both should stay as they were).

I can NOT find anything to my position that American did NOT change, while the rest of the Western World did on the net (I Looked, but not to long), but from what I can tell it seems to be why we Americans do Month-Date-year while the rest of the world does Date-Month-Year (and both should be replaced by the newer Year-Month-Date system do to how computers use dates). I suspect the reason we Americans use Month-Date-year while the rest of the world uses Day-Month-Year is historical, but why I can not tell you (I did look, but did not find anything one way to another).

There are other differences between England and America that are historical. For example, the US Gallon was based on the English "Wine Gallon" not the English Gallon. For the American Colonist imported wine in wine-gallons and thus were familiar with Wine-gallons NOT the larger English Imperial Gallon even in Colonial Times. Thus the US Gallon is 4/5 the size of an English Gallon.

Americans pronounce multi-syllables words (and Hs), giving each syllable equal stress (England tends to drop whole syllable and Hs). This is attributed to Noah Websters First American Dictionary, which included the first pronunciation guide which said to treat each syllable the same and to pronounced the H in a word (Yes, I know Johnson did his first, Webster's claim to fame is in pronunciation guide).

We Americans drive on the right side of the Road for we adopted the side by side horse team concepts before Rural Britain did (England used horses in tandem while into the 1700s). If you have a pair of horses side by side, you want to be on the right, for the "drive" horse is the LEFT horse. As such both drivers want their left horse to be the one nearest the wagon coming the other direction, thus with a horse team you want to right of the wagon coming toward you. In a tandem system, the horses are NOT side by side, but one on front of another. The drive horse is the front horse. Going to the Right provides NO better view or passing advantage for there is NO horse on the drive horse side that the driver has to consider. Since most horses were and are trained to be mounted on their left side (do to Knights carrying their swords on their left side and thus NOT having to left the leg AND sword over the horse) it was easier to go to the LEFT with a tandem set of horses (also if someone was riding on the drive horse, he had his sword on his left, protected by the horse if the other wagon had dishonest intentions). Napoleon firmed up the practice that wagon went on the RIGHT, but it seems to have been the norm in most of Germany and France while before 1700. England, its military not needing wagons for transport IN ENGLAND, stayed with the older on the left system do to continued use of tandem teams after 1700. America, on the other hand, seems to have been passing on the right from at least 1700 onward, do mostly to the larger wagons Americans were using (and the huge number of Germans that migrated to the Americans in the 1700s, My Home state of Pennsylvania was more German than English in 1775, in fact the US Congress in the 1770s only failed to adopted German as the Official Language by one vote). Yes, a lot on this subject, but it is an example of the difference between England and the US based on how both countries have diverge even BEFORE 1776.

Another area of "Change" is the observation that the English spoken in West Virginia is closer to the English Of Shakespeare than any other form of English (including the English spoken in Avon and London). Do more to a LACK OF CHANGE while English in England Changed.

Thus my point, I believe (and I do admit I have to double check this "fact") is the American way to doing the date is the original way. We just stayed the same, while England and Europe changed. We Americans had no reasons to change, while England had good reasons to change given the increase trade in the post Napoleonic Europe.

[Peace Patriot]

28. The danged critters also say "half eleven"--but which half?!

I've always thought that "8 November 2007" was a pretty elegant way to put it. No plebian comma in there, with dirty shoes.

But, really, if we could have England's health care system and a head of government, the Prime Minister, who could be run out of town on a rail when things get as disgusting as they are now, in the U.S., I'd agree to driving on the left. I'd even give up H's.

[Occulus]

42. Wow. Do you have an interest in these sorts of contrasts?

Do you have a world history degree, by chance?

See, now you've gone and made me curious as to what the differences in social conventions (spelling, use of language, measurements, and so forth) are between America and its European roots.

Lovely. A self-study. Not a bad thing at all, IMO...

[happyslug]

50. No I do NOT have a history Degree, but I like History

So I read history whenever I can. For example My grandfather once had English Book written around 1900. It was from England, but I liked its comments on the US dropping the u in worlds like "Colour" and the American Habit of using "er" instead of "re". The book liked the US habit of dropping the U for it was useless. Changing Colour to Color did NOT require any special rules and simplify English. Now as to the American use of "er" instead of "re" they opposed for it required a special rules for words with the letter C in them (such as Acre). The Special Rule made English more Complex for no good Reason (The Book did not say so, but both changes are tied in with Webster's First Dictionary).

You can learn a lot about what going on today by reading History, much of history repeats itself do to Geography (Any Invasion of Iran first requires an Invasion of Syria to secure a Supply route, a lesson taught by Successful invasions of Iran which always used Syria as a base).

[DemBones DemBones]

74. All history is interesting and history of language

can be very interesting. My English grandmother always said AL you -min-ee-um, not aluminum as we say it in the US. She also said turk-wahs rather than turk-woise for turquoise.

I like colour and honour better than color and honor, and the book you cite makes a good point: since we still use acre, why not centre or metre?

[dipsydoodle]

45. Doesn't have the right ring to it

Conventionally anything would be categorised either smallest to largest or vice versa. Hence dd/mm/yy and yy/mm/dd both make sense : mm/dd/yy doesn't.

And by the way - the Romans drove on the left. From memory they preceed the USA...lol.

Thanks for your input and the effort therein.

[happyslug]

49. As to the Romans I have NEVER read which side they drove on.

The Romans thought Left was bad luck (Sinister is left in Latin) but the story of left hand drive seems to start with the Papacy in the middle ages trying ot control the people coming to and from Rome. The pope at the time told people to stay to their left, which seems to have been the rule till the 1600s. In the 1600s Teams of horses (i.e. side by by side) started to replace Horses in tandem. Do to this change, teamsters started to pass each other on the Right. By 1700 this seems to have become the norm, except in England. Napoleon firmed up the new pattern in the early 1800s.

My comment was on WHY Americans (and the rest of the World) go on the Right, while England, Japan (and many other Island Nations) along with former British Colonies go on the Left. More a historical accident then any real planning, but an accident driven by economic need. The same with the Calender, Consistency among trading partners help trade, thus writing the date down as the same helped trade. Thus why most of the World Adopted Date-Month-Year while we in the US use Month-Day-year.

As I said above, I have NOT done the research needed on this subject (what I have done has turned up blank) so I really concede I may be wrong, but given the other difference do to Trade I lean to it being a change in Europe while America stayed "old fashioned".

[HuckleB]

60. The Romans did, it's true.

Of course, the Chinese enforced a rule that the right side of the road is for men, and the left side of the road is for women, while carriages went down the center. They didn't say anything about what to do when two carriages passed in opposite directions, of course.

But it was good teamsters in the US and France in the late 1700s that led the decision to the change the rule to riding on the right side of the road, followed by the peasants in post-revolution France. Napoleon and France took it from there, which might explain why this whole issue bothers the Brits so durned much.

;)

[TheMadMonk]

64. The word is "DUE".

The teacher is going to do you due to your atrocious spelling.

And then come after me for my incorrect(slangy) use of the word do.

[happyslug]

65. In grade school I had consistent grades, that NEVER varied from week to week

Accuracy is defined as consistent repeating the same result over and over again. In my Grade School weekly spelling test I had the same result every week. The results NEVER varied.

OK, a E is an E, out of the 20 or so words the Teacher gave my class to study each week, I would even spell 1-2 words right on the weekly test. In Third Grade we were told the spelling test would be 1 mis-spelled word a B, 2 a C 3 a D, 4 a F. Since I had already found about about percentage, and this was NOT a percentage I refused to participate. So I did not opened my spelling book till after I had the test back. I had to write each word ten times, but that was a small price to pay for my boycott. The only bad part was I never told anyone (a big mistake, but I was in Grade School), but none of my teachers ever asked me either. My spelling has improve immensely since then (no help from any teachers) but spell checks help a lot. It did teach me one thing, if you boycott something make a big issue of it, do NOT assume people will KNOW what you are doing unless you give them the information. Do letters, protest signs, Pictures, and today put it on the net and any other way to get people to KNOW what you are doing. I did not do this, and my boycott was ignored.

On top of the above, I am from Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). People from this part of the state are noted for dropping non-action verbs like the words "to" and "be". While we will use the words "to" and "be" when absolutely needed (Like quoting Hamlet "To be or not to be"), we drop them on a regular basis. Since I type as I speak I see it in my writing (Most Western Pennsylvanians were taught in school to put in such non action verbs, a habit I avoided so how I speak and type tends to be the same, dropping "to" and "be" consistently.

I also have a habit of NOT re-reading what I had wrote. And when I do re-read it, it sounds like what I wanted to write. I have NEVER adopted the habit of taking a break, leaving something alone for a few hours and reviewing in then. When I started to Practice law, I had the opportunity to review some of my writings months after I wrote them. This was the first time I did so in my life. I would notice all types of mistakes, that I missed when I wrote the writing. Mistakes quite obvious, but when I was writing I was to into the writing to notice. I should have seen this is law school (The first set of schools I went to with extensive and exclusive writing for tests) but the Pitt Law School require any student to ask to see the graded paper, and I was NOT about to ask (Probably goes back to my grade school days, when asking the teacher for anything was a waste of time. see below for more detail). Thus I did NOT review any of my writings while in Law School. A huge mistake on my part, but in many ways NOT Pitt Law School's fault, the fault of my Grade school. I support Public Schools, for what happened to me could have occurred in a Private School, but in Public Schools you can still learn even if the School District is against you. The system is set up that way, do to previous lawsuits and legislature. Private Schools are NOT subject to most such legislature AND the lawsuits about education opportunities only applies to Public Schools.

A fourth factor is my speak impediment. I had it since I was preschool, but the school I went to never really addressed it. What I needed was a 5 second delay tape player so I could hear myself speak and correct what I was saying to what I was suppose to say. Instead for 6 years I had a speech teacher who took me out of regular class (Mostly English if I remember) and gave me papers where I had to draw circles around objects that had the "s" or "th" sound. Since I am above average IQ, all I had to remember if the word had that sound. Thus I drew circles around a lot of pictures (and yes, in spelling I was misspelling a lot of words, but the mistakes had NOTHING to do with missing the sounds in the words, a connection NEVER made by my teachers or the Speech Teacher). Anyway, from what I remember, I missed a lot of English classes in my school. By the time someone brought in a delay tape recorder and recommend I use it (when I was in Sixth Grade), I never saw the speech therapist afterward. Thus my English background is poor, for I missed most of them when in Grade School. In High School we went into Literature not Grammar or spelling so I basically had no background in English Grammar, except what I did on my own.

I did well in School, Collage and even Law School (Through my lack of background in proper Grammar did finally affect my Grades in Law School). I joke I never learned what a run on Sentence was till 2-3 years after I graduated Law School (I write as I think). When in High School and Collage I would get papers back with teacher's comment "Run on sentence", I would read the sentence, and it made sense to me since it is how I think, thus I dismiss the comment. No one ever defined a Run on Sentence to me. I came across a definition after I was in practice a few years (And the briefs I had written, tended to be short and to the point). I now try to follow that rule, but I break it to this day. I suspect most people learn about it in Grade School but at that time I was NOT in any English Class on a full time basis NOT given any additional English Class do to missing the Regular English Class (That I remember, I do remember some English but in the form of books with the answers on the next page, NOT from any teacher). I remember in Fifth and Sixth grades having to read books from a collection of books the teacher had and having to do an outline on the book. I did Synopsis instead (I found out the difference about three years later as I was reading my English book in the English class, while the Teacher was discussing a Story from another part of the book, to late to correct the D I received in Sixth Grade). I have to admit, I hated the books the teacher had, I had read my older sister's Collage History in fourth Grade (I like History), and the teacher's selection of books had no interests to me so I read the bare minimum I had to. Yes, I have a bad view of that School District, I transferred out after ninth grade and did much better in my new School, but damage had already been done.

Other things I learn independent of School as to English include the differences between "They", "Their" and "There". I learned the difference in Collage, again by reading a book NOT assigned for the teacher assumed everyone knew the difference. The SAT did not really test on these subjects for, again, the test makers assumed everyone knew these rules (thus I did well on the English Part of the SAT when I took them in the 1970s).

Yes, my grade school was bad. Terrible in fact. In Seventh Grade I was even assigned to a Special Education class for six weeks. To this day I do not know why, the Special Education teacher was apologetic when I was first assigned (Part of her apology was it give her more time to help the other person in her class, while I just read books). There I was, IQ of 140 in a Special Education Class reading collage books. I suspect it was to satisfy some state requirement as to my Speech, but the School District did NOT want to buy a Delay tape recorder, so put me in a Special Education program instead. This was the early 1970s, about the time the US was changing its policy to students with learning disabilities, moving them from separate classes, to mainstreaming those students and giving them support while in regular classes. I suspect I was just ahead of the movement, but it may have been a rationale for the district. Putting me in Special Education Class meant they did something "For me" given my speech impediment and thus did NOT have to buy that delay tape recorder.

Please note, but the time I moved out of the School District, I was NO longer under under special programs as to my speech. I do know that the School I transferred to received NO record of any special program. The City of Pittsburgh had me two years before one of my teachers recommended Speech therapy for me. The Speech Therapist saw me and starting me on a delay tape recorder. He apologized for getting to me so late, for he did most of his work in the Grade Schools AND until one of my teachers (I think it was my Latin Teacher) turned me in, the Pittsburgh School District had no record of any such problem for me (I only saw him for three months, I graduated 25th in my class of over 500 students). Thus I know my old school district did NOT send that information to them.

Yes, if you notice I mentioned my Law School (Pitt Law School), the School District I graduated from (Pittsburgh School District) but NOT the School District I attended from 1st through 9th grades. It is in Allegheny County, but I refuse to use its name, and only admit I served 9 years in that School District (yes, like an ex-felon "served" his time). Get to me every so often, and this this long dissertation, but most time I just leave it in the past, for it is over and I over came the problems they gave me. I believe it made me a better person, but I also expect people in positions of Authority to do their job. The School District, the School Board and the Administration did not in my case, hopefully I never make the same mistake.

[Ian David]

47. When will the British learn to speak English? n/t

[melody]

44. The vast majority of us realized that n/t

[Mojambo]

2. Whoa. Scary! n/t

[soothsayer]

3. wild! nothing on the beeb (the bbc site)

[Purveyor]

9. Here are a couple of links to other sources reporting the situation:

Massive Wall of Water Expected to Slam East Coast of England
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309758,00.html

Tidal surge puts east coast in 'extreme danger'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/08/nstorm208.xml

[bananas]

11. It's there now

Two stories on the front page
Storm surge flood warning http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm
Flooding 'may put lives at risk' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7085394.stm

[T_i_B]

41. Try this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7086280.stm

[Uncle Joe]

4. I wonder if this is related to the hurricane that passed up the eastern seaboard recently?

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[WCGreen]

5. I saw a special about this on the Science Channel a while back.,,

It could be devastating if the barriers are breached...

[madrchsod]

8. that was a very interesting program..

i think i would`t want to live anywhere near there if things went to hell.

[T_i_B]

43. I already do live not far from a tidal river in East Anglia!

I'm high enough up not to be worried about myself but there are some areas round here such as Jaywick and Mersea Island which I am worried about as they are at risk from this.

[Sequoia]

7. Good thing they don't have FEMA.

See, these Brits get on the ball and do something about it.

[mcscajun]

10. BBC also has the story now...although they call it a "tidal surge"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7085394.stm

[here_is_to_hope]

12. Its actually a tidal bore and as predictable as the

tides themselves. This one happens to be larger than normal because of the gale winds and recent storm activity piling water up.
Surfers ride these things all over the planet, Brazil (up the Amazon), this one in England and two more in NS.
Here is a link to the one in Brazil... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0222_050222_tidalbore.html

and a site just for those crazies that do this...
http://thelongwave.com/buzz/boreriderscom.html
Me? I'll stick to the local point break thanks....:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

Edited because surfers cant spell...

[dipsydoodle]

16. Nearly right not quite so

The Severn Bore matches your description and is reasonably predictable. On this occasion high winnds to the north of the North Sea have pushed water south to meet up with a high tide. The exposure to East Anglia is because its flat as Holland. Worst occasion was 1953 :

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/bygones/2003/01jan/030114floo.shtml

[madrchsod]

14. animated satellite loop/world

[dipsydoodle]

17. It's whatever

is swirling around the top of Scotland that is causing the issue.

[fedsron2us]

15. Low lying coastal areas of Holland, Germany and Denmark

are equally at risk. Hamburg is particularly vulnerable.

[elehhhhna]

18. no worries about Netherlands -- they know how to evacuate...

People AND livestock. They're amazing.

[fedsron2us]

20. Hope you are right

Over 1800 perished along the Dutch coast in the Great Storm surge of 1953

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953

315 died in a similar flood in Hamburg in 1962

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1962

These events can be killers

[slutticus]

21. And their levees are bad-ass

[AngryAmish]

19. Way to go, Bush!

[Wednesdays]

26. Um...

:wtf:

[Quantess]

31. Bush isn't a total failure.

He's doing pretty well at hastening global warming.

[goforit]

33. Tectonic warfare from our beloved President.

[tabasco]

69. Poor wittle Boosh gets blamed for everything!

I know you have your panties all twisted up because of it!

[Postman]

22. Isn't this "Old Europe"? Who cares.....

Maybe Cheney will send Bush on a flyover mission....

[mwb970]

23. To the rescue!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

35. LOL!

[Bitwit1234]

25. Global warming changing the course of seas and wrecking havoc

causes no problem...does it. And the date....8(day) 11 (month) 07 (year) is used by our military also. I used to work for the military and believe me it was certainly confusing typing 8 November 2007 and then changing it when I used it otherwise.

[DemoTex]

27. Just talked to Edinburgh on 20 meters (14.28 mHz)

All's well. That was a strange contact for this time of night, but 20 was wide open for a few minutes earlier tonight.

[Peace Patriot]

29. This makes me want to weep:

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called a special COBRA Cabinet Office meeting to coordinate an emergency reponse.

"John Healey, minister of state for local communities, said: 'COBRA will be on full alert throughout the night, and the Prime Minister will be keeping in close touch and keeping on top of things.'"

----------------------------

A government on "full alert" to help its people in a natural disaster. Wow!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

36. The Prime Minister isn't a playboy

unlike someone we know

[lovuian]

30. OMG this is the worst place for this to hit England

the coast line of Norfolk and Suffolk are low lying and has been eroding

here is the coast line video I did WHOAH

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O7Px6xFRsX4

East Anglia has been sinking

Amazing
I hope they will get to safety

Blair not signing Kyoto is going to be a big wake up call for all

[Matilda]

39. Did Blair not sign either?

I thought it was only Bush and Howard.

Guess I should have known better; he is the poodle after all.

[baseballhead]

52. Signing Kyoto would of stopped this?

Somebody go and get Tony Blair and waterboard his ass.

[Delphinus]

55. I was blown away by some of the comments

on that video. I wish there was an emoticon that shakes their head sadly, as that's what I'm doing irl.

Amazing sound too - who is that?

[Cetacea]

32. Is it Global Warming Yet?

I still think that DU should have a local and global extreme weather forum.





edit: globak is not the word I had intended to use.:eyes:

[HeeBGBz]

37. We have a weather forum

[baseballhead]

53. You could blame it on Global Warming

but it has been happening for a very long time....even before there were cars or GWB.

[lovuian]

73. Norfolk and Suffolk has been around for centuries

but in the next decade they won't be

Hows that for Global Warming

Its here and its definitely Blair and Bush's fault History will show it

[nealmhughes]

34. We tend not to think of the North Sea storms as bad, but historically they have been extemely bad on

occasion. The Irish Sea is bad enough, but the North Sea will make a foul weather sailor hurl.

This is supposed to be the worst since the Great 1953 Storm.

Does anyone know how far up the Thames barriers are?

[silverlil]

40. I was in the storm of 1953

I was born in Lowestoft. I will be calling relatives in the morning to see how they survived. The flooding was so bad back then, the land is really flat, however I dont see it hitting Kirkley Cliffs and our home was not flooded. Gosh we just got through the firestorms again here in San Diego and the stress of that and now this worry. May parents are dead now, but brother, cousins, etc all live in Lowestoft. It will be a long night for me.

[dipsydoodle]

46. Looks like they got off ok

Fears of widespread flooding in eastern England have diminished as tides peaked without major breaches of sea defences.
High water in the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth passed without major damage being caused, and people have been told they can return to their homes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7086280.stm

I've seen a documentary about 1953 and the number of orphans it created - so sad.

[silverlil]

56. I called everyone

but could not reach my brother, I left a message on his machine. There was flooding, but nothing compared to last time. oh dear. My 97 year old aunt (dad's sister) is ok in Kesssingland.

[VLC98]

54. My Dad was in the storm of 1953 also.

He was evacuated from Felixstowe Ferry, where his family had lived for many generations, and sadly was never able to move back. I spoke to him yesterday and he was convinced it wasn't going to be a bad one this time. He said that in 1953 it had been blowing a gale for two days straight prior to that awful night, but the winds were not right this time. He's an old fisherman and pretty savvy about the coastline. Thank goodness the experts were wrong about this one.

[silverlil]

57. on that dreadful night in 53

my girlfriend and I walked out of the pictures at 8:30 and we had to walk backwards and hold on to one another because the wind was so bad and after I got on my bus and she walked home, 2 hours later that area was under 5 feet of water, so was my friend's house. We did not have the warnings back them. A gale is a gale and we were used to gales plus my parents would never have allowed me out if we had known something like was about to take place back then. We had just came off rationing, it was a very bad time in England during those years. Half of the town was under water in 53 and the area where Cromwell hid out was left in a very bad shape. You are right about the fishermen, my grandad was a skipper, made peanuts then, after he died, skippers were riding around in mercedes! I am glad to hear your father is alright.

England needs to start thinking like Holland - it will only take one bad storm to knock out this flatland. Cheers.

[VLC98]

62. Times were indeed hard back then.

I have never known my Dad to leave anything on his plate, and we joke that to this day he wears his clothes until they disintegrate. He talks a lot about the flood, more so recently it seems. While it was a bit boring hearing about it as a kid, I've come to realize that it was a huge life-changing experience for him, being only 10 years old at the time, and probably had an effect similar to PTSD.

[xxqqqzme]

58. I've only heard tales of fearsome storms

in the North Sea. Whenever I see it referenced I think bad news.

Wasn't it a North Sea storm that defeated the Spanish Armada?

[BornagainDUer]

61. I was in one in 74'. On an aircraft carrier.

Even on that monster ship it was scary. 80 foot waves. I saw a destroyer in our battle group crest a wave and its propeller cleared the water. Water in spouts shooting out of the scuppers. The wind whistling through the metal structure around metal pipes, etc. was eery as hell. :scared:

We used to bet on how long a newbie would last before chucking his guts.

[lovuian]

38. East Anglia has lost so much to the sea in their coastline

and Norfolk and Suffolk grow ever closer to the sea

England is in trouble

[JoFerret]

63. And ...it's a place of outstanding natural beauty

.

[T_i_B]

48. Tide fears recede as surge passes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7086280.stm

Fears of widespread flooding in eastern England have diminished as tides peaked without major breaches of sea defences.

High water in the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth passed without major damage being caused, and people have been told they can return to their homes.

The Environment Agency said surge levels were expected to be nearly 8in (20cm) lower than originally feared.

But residents living along the Kent coast have been told to remain vigilant as high tides are expected late

[0007]

51. That's a good piece of good news this morning, 'eh?

[Algorem]

66. Wow,they dodged a bullet.Or a wave,actually;dodged a wave is

what they did.Really it would be more accurate to say that the wave dodged them.The wave dodged them.If a wave can really dodge anything.Which it can't of course.Nothing happened,I guess would be what actually happened.

[fedsron2us]

67. The surge was 20cm lower than expected

which probably made all the difference. There was some over topping of the defences by the waves and some localised flooding but in general the sea walls held. Some good pictures gathered by locals can be found here

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/video/07/11/floodsslideshow.aspx

[Judi Lynn]

70. Thanks for the photos. Looks as if they came close enough to some REALLY scary stuff.

There had to be some wildly tense moments there, as it was. There'll be a lot of clean-up ahead for them.

The last photo was a good one to end the series. Thanks.

[Megahurtz]

59. I Guess All Of That Melting Ice

has to go somewhere. This is not a good sign.

[allisonthegreat]

68. heartbreaking! and not covered on the msm n/t

[Audio_Al]

71. For those of us who still love the ocean, and live near it, this is not a pretty PHOTO!

Photo from the tidal event November 2007 in Great Britain. Those are WAVES, not TREES!

[ohio2007]

72. did the tidal waves hit as predicted?

from the original article;
....Surge expected to hit east coast in next 12 hours
....
That was about 20 hrs ago.
I take it England's still standing.. "Britainia still rules the waves" ;)