Waves from Hercules hit Porthcawl harbour
I will admit to having mixed feelings about assigning names to winter storms. Hurricanes are momentous enough to be worthy of names, but most winter storms, nasty and dangerous though they may indeed be, don’t seem worth naming. I will admit however, that the recent Winter Storm Hercules lived up to its name.
When Winter Storm Hercules roared across the US mid-west and East Coast last week, it brought heavy snow and dangerous winds, leaving thousands without power and resulting in the deaths of at least 16 people. Parts of the North East saw two feet of snow fall.
When Hercules crossed the Atlantic it brought its own havoc to the coasts of Europe and the UK. Coastal towns were deluged by rain and hammered by winds reaching 70mph. Waves of up to 50 feet high were recorded breaking on the coast. As reported by the Mirror: The Environment Agency issued 340 flood warnings which covered all parts of the country including three severe alerts – meaning where there was a “significant risk to life” – in Dorset. One of the warnings was in Bournemouth after the River Stour burst its banks. With all access roads under 3ft of water, Muchelney in Somerset was cut off for the fourth day. The only way in and out of the village is by boat.
Hercules also gave ships at sea a particularly rough time. The 8,750 TEU Maersk Stepnica was recently diverted from Felixstowe after suffering storm damage to containers on deck. Containers are designed to take a wide range of loading but cannot survive getting hit by a boarding wave. When the bottom container in a stack on deck fails, everything above it falls as well.