Bray Seafront Flooded

Thargor

No thread? Pretty major event I would have thought, water and stones still pouring over the walls at 15:30 this afternoon.











I heard the worst gust of wind Ive ever heard in my life at about 5 am this morning, could hear the rafters over my head screeching, more to come aswell according to the Weather forum.

Tombo2001

Crazy photos, especially the stones up on the path.

Alun

Wow! Comes as a complete surprise to me ... I didn't hear anything like that up here (near Ardmore Studios) and I haven't been down there today.

insomniac86

I hear this weather is supposed to continue during the week. I should of known that the peaceful weather we got through the end of the year would have some sort of catch to it. Hopefully the seafront doesn't get worse. My thoughts go out to people living on the Strand Road.

Thargor

Kicking myself that I only had a camera phone on me, I went up Bray Head from the Southern Cross side and didn't know what I was looking at for a second when I looked down, it looked like a total disaster zone and nobody mentioned it on the radio or anything, didnt capture any views from the head or how massive the waves were before my battery went:

Annasopra

None of these images are opening on my phone

Thargor

All good in Chrome/IE and FF, no clue sorry, heres an Imgur album of them:

http://imgur.com/a/1Rz6K

nicnac

Woah! Thanks for sharing. Was that the area up by the amusements?

EB_2013

That photo with the stones on the path is crazy, looks like the whole beach has been shifted.

pixbyjohn

Super photos and thank you for sharing.

Maudi

Wow..what a clean up .great to see the "flood defence" (snicker) workin so well..

murpho999

Maudi wrote: »

Wow..what a clean up .great to see the "flood defence" (snicker) workin so well..

Did you ever think that the flooding my have been worse without it?(snigger).

Maudi

murpho999 wrote: »

Did you ever think that the flooding my have been worse without it?(snigger).

Worse? Like. have you seen the flooding?
How much more "worse"would you like it?

murpho999

Maudi wrote: »

Worse? Like. have you seen the flooding?
How much more "worse"would you like it?

Well, years ago stormy weather would cause regular flooding along the whole seafront which is not the case this time and it could also have been deeper.

B0jangles

murpho999 wrote: »

Well, years ago stormy weather would cause regular flooding along the whole seafront which is not the case this time and it could also have been deeper.

Agree 100%.

I've lived on Bray Seafront for more than 30 years and the seafront protection works have not only greatly reduced the regularity and severity of flooding events (anyone else remember seeing kayakers paddling about on the road beside the Aquarium?) , they've also had the minor but very nice side effect of providing year-round protection from salt damage to our garden. Plants we could never have grown before now thrive because the salt from autumn and winter gales doesn't travels nearly as far up from the beach.

I will say that the status of the defences need to be reviewed - this winter's stoms have caused the beach to change shape very dramatically so there may well be work to be done to repair the changes.

Edit: This is where the sea used to hit every winter at the north end:

zoobizoo

Maudi wrote: »

Worse? Like. have you seen the flooding?
How much more "worse"would you like it?

These waves were caused by a massive swell from the south which is very unusual.

For the last number of years the stones and defence system have protected the seafront.

If it hadn't been there, the power of the waves could have eroded away the promenade - just see the photos of Lahinch, Tramore etc etc, and the sea would have caused much more damage.

Thargor

The council were sandbagging the gates of the private properties up the south end of the beach at lunch today, wonder if they're expecting more flooding. They were sealing loads of cars in aswell.

B0jangles

Seems very unlikely that there will be more flooding, it's almost high water already and it's nowhere near coming over the top. Plus the high tide has dropped back to 4.1 metres, compared to 4.6 later last week, and 4.3 yesterday.

Alun

That's good news! What's the state of the defences, i.e. the big bank of pebbles? It was looking pretty bad even before the recent storms with a steep drop from the promenade level down to the beach where it had been more gradual before.

B0jangles

The middle section (at the breakwater) is probably the worst affected; the beach has been eaten away right up to the prom. There used to be a good 15-20 foot level area before it dropped down steeply to the lower beach level - that whole upper area is pretty much gone at the moment.

The North end is not as bad - the overall shape of the place has changed a good bit but there is still a decent area of higher beach between us and the sea.

Edit: there are a couple of JCBs at work right now on the area at the middle breakwater.

Edit2: Have a picture of the prom this morning

Alun

Time to invest in companies selling pebbles methinks

B0jangles

This is what the north end of the seafront was like at high water yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1B-KzSe_dY&feature=youtu.be

That's not even a particularly big wave, just one I happened to catch. The really big ones came all the way across the gravel and over the low wall into the car-park.

Annasopra

B0jangles wrote: »

This is what the north end of the seafront was like at high water yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1B-KzSe_dY&feature=youtu.be

That's not even a particularly big wave, just one I happened to catch. The really big ones came all the way across the gravel and over the low wall into the car-park.

That's nothing as big as this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQsD3c9j-dA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIQsD3c9j-dA&app=desktop

B0jangles

mango salsa wrote: »

That's nothing as big as this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQsD3c9j-dA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIQsD3c9j-dA&app=desktop

Jesus Christ that's monster!

Thargor

B0jangles wrote: »

Seems very unlikely that there will be more flooding, it's almost high water already and it's nowhere near coming over the top. Plus the high tide has dropped back to 4.1 metres, compared to 4.6 later last week, and 4.3 yesterday.

Thats what I thought but they're there with a truck today building big sandbag walls across the front gates of those brightly coloured houses you can see in my video on the previous page, no clue why.

Oleta

Fantastic photo!

Judgement Day

B0jangles wrote: »

The middle section (at the breakwater) is probably the worst affected; the beach has been eaten away right up to the prom. There used to be a good 15-20 foot level area before it dropped down steeply to the lower beach level - that whole upper area is pretty much gone at the moment.

The North end is not as bad - the overall shape of the place has changed a good bit but there is still a decent area of higher beach between us and the sea.

Edit: there are a couple of JCBs at work right now on the area at the middle breakwater.

Edit2: Have a picture of the prom this morning

Got to love the way Bray UDC look after the wonderful Victorian seating. :rolleyes:

zoobizoo

Judgement Day wrote: »

Got to love the way Bray UDC look after the wonderful Victorian seating. :rolleyes:

I think it gets painted once a year once winter is over, no?

trad

I was hoping to go to the trad session in the Hibernian Hotel tonite, then again it is up a bit of a hill from the seafront

Alun

zoobizoo wrote: »

I think it gets painted once a year once winter is over, no?

Some of the seat backs seem to have kept their paint better than others for some reason.

Actually what bugs me is the gaps where some seat backs are missing. It shouldn't be too difficult to take one off, make a mould and cast a few replacements. It would make a nice project for a metalwork class at a school or college somewhere. And while they're at it they could do the same thing and replace the broken torch / light holders on either side of the gaps in the wall where the paths lead out over the grass too.

Judgement Day

zoobizoo wrote: »

I think it gets painted once a year once winter is over, no?

Well, from the picture I'm not sure how much of the cast iron seating backing is in place - perhaps a resident of Bray can help - but in the good old days there was a comfy timber seat running the full length of the seating. The awful light standards are completely out of keeping with the original ambience - not to mention the Normandy gun emplacements - and perhaps it would best if the sea took out the whole prom some night.