West Devon has been licking its wounds this week after Storm Darragh swept through the area last Friday and Saturday, leaving power lines down, trees toppled and homes plunged into darkness.
More than 6,149 properties were without power in Devon after particularly strong winds throughout Saturday, particularly in north Devon, where wind gusts of up to 96mph (155km/h) were recorded.
Outdoor events had to be cancelled or curtailed because of strong winds among them Tavistock’s Christmas Dickensian Evening.
The annual highlight of the town’s festive celebrations last Friday night had to be cut back, with shops remaining open but street parades and an outdoor market and outdoor music having to be cancelled. Customer numbers were down in the town’s pannier market where traders nonetheless entered in to the spirit of the occasion, by dressing in Dickensian costume.
Janna Sanders, manager of Tavistock Business Improvement District which organises Dickensian Evening, said: “It was good to see people out shopping and supporting the town. Generally speaking, businesses I visited on the evening seemed to think it was a better night than they had feared. We are now looking at boosting Sunday events to encourage footfall on those days.”
In Bere Alston, a Christmas event in the village hall, including a carol concert, went ahead with lamp and candle power, despite a power cut. Other villages were also partially hit, including Walkhampton and Whitchurch.
Archdeacon, the Ven Nick Shutt, a Walkhampton resident, switched to his electric car batteries when the lights went out. He said: “The Tesla Powerwall app alerted me to the coming storm and suggested I charged the batteries to 100 per cent.
“I did this and when we lost power the batteries automatically cut in to power the house. Obviously, we managed the load by turning off and not using appliances that used lots of power but we had enough power in the batteries to carry us through a number of hours until the power returned.
“We upgraded our circuit panels recently and together with our air source heat pump, we are trying to be as ‘green’ as we can be.”
Numerous trees were toppled by strong winds and roads closed and traffic diverted as tree surgeons worked round the clock to keep roads open in West Devon, including one close to the Iron Railings junction, on the Tavistock to Chillaton road, where traffic was diverted for the day. Another tree also blocked a road at Lamerton.
Mike Davies, an Okehampton-based building surveyor who specialises in storm damage across Devon and Cornwall, said: “It’s hectic at the moment, we’ve literally got hundreds and hundreds of claims coming through.
“I think the problem is that we’ve had two very big storms close together. It’s mostly just trees falling down and ridge tiles coming off roofs but I’m having to visit 13 cases a day so the company’s been very busy.”
