The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Twenty Two

  

November the 28th.

The old adage relating to the Atlantic hurricane season runs in part; "October: It's all over." It will need to be amended to reflect our changing climate because I've just seen the latest weather forecast and it doesn't look good. Another vigorous low-pressure system which should have become a Category Three hurricane and made landfall in Florida, instead ran parallel to the US east coast before recurving to the north-east. It became entangled with the Atlantic jet stream, running almost permanently on a more southerly latitude now, so it hasn't weakened as much as expected; and now the densely-packed swirl of isobars which resembles the close contours of a mountain drawn on an Ordinance Survey map is predicted to hit the southern Fed tonight. It's time to go into emergency public service broadcaster, batten down the hatches mode.

At a conference call of all our offices I remind them of our, not the OMS' guidelines. "Remember; I don't want to see and I won't use any feet-wet or windblown breathless reportage, no matter how dramatic it may look: Not from us or any of our stringers! Don't stand out in the middle of it like a dinlo when you're 'casting! Yes, we know the weather is bad without you pratting about in it up to your knees! We're not NewSkyNews or the Beeb! So stick to the facts, taking no-one's word for anything without corroboration, and that goes especially for blurts. You all know your jobs, so do what you do well and keep safe!" The advance warnings have been issued, we'll continue to update them as the storm approaches, and we're ready to cover any of the usual problems in the usual places.

Stronger storms are another thing we've had to get used to over the last decade. There was a time just a few years ago when we hardly ever had a decent winter gale; it was said this was the effect of climate change, with an overall warming lessening the contrast in temperature gradients which leads to storms. But now the weather seems to be making up for lost time and it's a rare winter month which doesn't have a Force Eleven gale smashing into the south coast. The sea defences have been reinforced as much as the straitened finances will allow but; as the residents of the Manhood peninsula coast will tell you, sometimes it just isn't enough. I must remind myself to commission a follow-up programme on the Selsey floods soon...

The other problem we'll probably face will be an overspin of the Éireaan wind farms. Wind energy sounds fine in principle but the practicalities let it down. Trying to balance so many variable inputs into the grid; especially during stormy weather, usually leads to the network going into a failsafe shutdown. The Crises set back the power station modernisation programme so we're still using many of the same generating plants we were two decades ago, and most of them are operating way beyond their designed lifespan.

Across the southern Fed conscripted National Resilience Agency staff will be called to duty; wind-up lanterns and shakerlites will be brought out from Ready Bags, local emergency plans activated, and Rest Centres readied for the displaced. We've been fortunate so far, but with the intensity of the storms increasing each winter sooner or later we're bound to be hit hard.

With a few hours to go before the storm is forecast to arrive we're as ready as we'll ever be. The dedicated weather stream is up; waiting to show in real time the inevitable huge waves crashing ashore, thrashing trees, and NRA personnel in their rain-slicked waterproofs doing what they can; but at the moment it's on a repeating loop of official preparedness blurts, the same ones which are Pushed to all personal devices flicked on in the projected danger areas. It's an easy way of fulfilling our Public Service Quota, even if we don't get any 'Cred for it. We've also got live links from the Rest Centres should we need them for the human interest angle to the evolving story, but we won't be allowed to show the body and bag seaches for 'prohibited articles' which anyone seeking shelter there must submit to; apparently to preserve the personal dignity of those involved.