5 days have passed since the storm surge on the evening of Thursday 5 December. Conditions were too difficult to land on Havergate immediately after the surge on the Friday. However, a slow sail round the island on Friday morning revealed at least two breaches in the wall and two of the hides at been floated out of position (main and Gullery). However, despite this it was considered that the island had not fared too badly.
However, the true extent of the damage was finally revealed on Tuesday morning when we were able to gain access to the interior of the island.
There have been over 20 slippages to the inside of the lagoon walls around the length of the island caused by the flood waters overtopping the walls. Doveys lagoon wall on the northern side is half the size it was on Wednesday with one hole.
All the lagoons are completely flooded and under about 8ft of water, in addition long meadow, the picnic area and most of the pathways are completely underwater. There has been major damage to the walls around the outlet sluices at main and Belpers and a huge breach of the wall at long meadow.
The interior lagoon wall between cottage flood and Belpers has gone, the surge has knocked a huge hole in the wall in the interior wall between Belpers lagoon and the pathway that runs along the outside of Belpers lagoon flooding both. Damage to the main hide is much worse than thought and it may not be salvageable.
I am reasonably optimistic that something can be made of Gullery lagoon, as has been noted before the toilet block is half way up a tree and last but not least the tractor shed is in pieces.
On the plus side the volunteer accommodation though flooded, looks okay, it should just be a case of repairing the carpets and some furnishings, the fridges and cookers seem to be okay.
So, after all that what next? Well, the flooding is almost completely superficial especially in the saline lagoon, the sluices are operating and draining the water and should have removed the flooding from all areas by sometime in later Jan early Feb. Ecologically these will operate as normal with no real lasting damage. Once the water is down then we will do what we can with the internal walls and external seawalls and repair the breaches with a digger.
The damage to the infrastructure is less easy to predict, if we can drag Gullery back into place then this may be open in March, as for Main, well we may have to wait a while before we can replace it. Though efforts will be made to salvage something from it.
There is obviously a huge cleanup operation to undertake with rubble and rubbish strewn everywhere, a boardwalk to put down and a volunteer huts to clean out and a tractor shed to sort out. However, at the moment any tidy up operation can wait until the water has receded and the island is a safe working environment once again.
Needless to say this all costs money and the RSPB has started an appeal to help us make the repairs to our coastal reserves. In addition, sadly, Havergate will be closed for the foreseeable future, tentatively we hope to reopen in March but more details will be given nearer the time. I apologise for anyone who was hoping to visit the island.
I know there has been some concern about the hare population on the island, well there are at least eight individuals present. However, it seems likely that in the short term the population will be somewhat reduced. Hares however, have a quick generational turnaround and will bounce back.
Spoonbill trees still standing!
It will take time to repair the island and to get it back into shape and I am confident we will but I doubt Havergate will ever be the same again.
Thanks for all the news & pics, seems utterly surreal to see all the water & hides in disarray. I'm v sad about the hares! It's good that you've seen several though, hopefully habitat will have recovered enough to encourage them to breed next year. It'll be interesting to see how flora & fauna regenerate after this somewhat drastic facelift! Please could you keep us posted regarding the clear up operation.
The island hardly looks recognisable from my visit. What devastation! I am deeply saddened by the news regarding the hares but I am glad some survived. I don't envy the task you have ahead of you but hopefully you will get plenty of volunteers. Unfortunately I live too far away to help (Derbyshire). I do hope the island is open again in the Spring as I will definitely be down for another visit. It is good to get the updates and thank you for that.
I would second Monika's comments, really pleased to see some Hare's have survived, hopefully the others were just hiding or swam to safety. My visits to Havergate in 2013 were some of the most memorable trips of the year, to spend an evening on the island in great company (wildlife and people) was a real privilege and I cannot help but fall in love with the island.
Thank you to Monika and Keiren for making this possible and I do hope the damage done can be fixed with as least stress as possible. Good Luck!
What a miracle that the spoonbill trees survived and how relieving to read about the 8 surviving hares. The memories of Havergate from our spring and summer events in 2013 have become unbelievably precious within one storm night. How good we have had all the extra events this year!