Falmouth's Castle Beach, beach huts were washed into the sea

The clean up has started this morning after a combination of strong winds and extremely high tides last night saw wide spread damage across Falmouth and Penryn.

The clean-up at Castle Beach started first thing in the morning with owners of the huts and volunteers coming down to help clear up the mess.

All the huts appeared to be damaged with some completely destroyed. Most had been pulled off their plinths but the owners were preparing to put them back or replace them.

Dan McColl owner of DiveUK clears up after the storm (Image: Paul Armstrong)

The brand new PADI dive school hut for Dive UK was also badly damaged with business owner Dan tearing what was left down as he cleared up. He said he was going to bring another hut down to replace it.

He said he’d had a call last night while he was getting his hair cut to say his hut was being destroyed by the waves and had been down since the early hours helping clear up.

“It is what it is,” he said. “This week we were going to come down and sort it all out for the new season, so I’m glad I didn’t, this is a new hut though.”

Cafe owner Emily Davidson said she was grateful to everybody who came down to help (Image: Paul Armstrong)

Castle Beach Café owner Emily Davidson told the Packet that the café building, which had been replaced by a shipping container after a storm destroyed the original building ten years ago, said she would open again today once the mess had been cleared up.

“It could have been worse,” she said. “It’s all been cleared up relatively quickly. I wholeheartedly appreciate the help we are being given. We have a lovely community here.”

She said the walkway outside the café would have to be replaced but they would tape off the unsafe areas where people couldn’t go.

Posting on Facebook she said: “A sad morning but the café is intact and completely fine. It could have been so much worse poor Dan has lost his @dive_uk hut, we are missing 3 beach huts, and as you can see our benches are gone and the seating shelter is completely smashed up.

“We are going to clear it up, and hopefully repairs will take place promptly. If anyone has a shovel and fancies getting the sand back onto the beach with us.”

The huts were damaged in the storm (Image: Paul Armstrong)

Many beach hut owners, for which there is a long waiting list, were down this morning to assess the damage.

Those that still had them were clearing out what was left of their stuff inside with much of it soaked or washed away by the sea. Many of the beach huts had been moved off their plinths but it was hoped they could be moved back on.

Audra Walker and her grandmother were clearing out their hut (Image: Paul Armstrong)

The owner of the site Jonny Fine told the Packet that they had put the huts back earlier than usual this year but this was a freak storm that had caught them.

“This is a community of beach hut people who individually decorate their huts, it’s a lovely community,” he said.

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“They’re pretty upset, there were lots of tears last night. It started about 4pm and I really didn’t think it was going to be what it was but by 8pm we’d lost a few huts and  a brand new dive centre.

Owner Jonny Fine said he hoped to replace all the beach huts (Image: Paul Armstrong)

“People like Duchy Hotel have sent people down, builders, we didn’t ask them they just came. Lots of people have come down I’m lucky to have a bunch of builders working on my house, Kemp Construction, and I’ve taken them off my house and brought them down here to give us a hand.”

Clearing up after the storm (Image: Paul Armstrong)

He said they were going to assess the huts which he thought were all salvageable. But they wanted to get the café open and get people down here.

“We’re just keen to get back to normal as soon as possible and we’d like to thank everybody for their support. Amount of messages I’ve had from well-wishers this morning has been amazing,” he said.