Ten rescued as wave strands bus in Newgale, Pembrokeshire

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Ten rescued as wave strands bus in Newgale, Pembrokeshire


A major rescue operation was launched after the bus got stuck

Ten people have been rescued after a bus was hit by a large wave in Newgale during high winds and high tides along the Welsh coast.

Pembrokeshire council say they were in the process of closing the road at the time.

Meanwhile, Ceredigion council is assessing the damage to Aberystwyth promenade after waves hit the seafront for the second time this year.

Eighteen flood warning and 12 alerts are in place in Wales.

At Newgale, Milford Haven Coastguard was contacted just after 19:00 GMT on Saturday with reports that the bus was stuck on the front, after it was hit by a large wave and became surrounded by flood water.

Coastguard, police, fire and ambulance crews were sent to the scene and an RAF^▸ (Royal Air Force) helicopter from Chivenor in Devon was called, but was stood down once the passengers were helped to safety. There were no reported injuries.

The council said they had been working to clear the rubble on the road but the A487 will remain closed until further notice. The bus was the responsibility of the owner to move, a spokesman said.

He added that the council was in the process of closing the road when the bus was hit by the wave.


The bus became engulfed with flood water at Newgale in Pembrokeshire


Workers clearing the road by the bus stranded in Newgale

[bobm]

I can't work out if the sea pushed the windows in or if they were broken by people escaping.

[Cynthia]

Crumbs, that must have been scary for the passengers.  Looking at the second photograph, you can see debris on the floor of the bus; makes me think the wave probably picked up a load of the stones on the beach, perhaps then, the windows were broken by the wave? 

[Rhydgaled]

Oh dear, looks nasty.

On the lighter side, the pictures do highlight the problem with route-branding. Newgale isn't on the 412 route (Cardigan - Newport - Fishguard - Haverfordwest) which the bus is branded for, but is no longer one of the regular vehicles on the 412.

[Alan Pettitt]

Still on the lighter side - it doesn't look to me that it's going to be in regular use on any route for a while.

[broadgage]

I can't work out if the sea pushed the windows in or if they were broken by people escaping.

I would suspect that stones thrown by the waves broke the windows.
Pssengers might have broken the odd window to escape, but all/nearly all of them seems a bit unlikely.
I doubt that waves alone could break modern toughened glass, but stones thrown up by the waves probably could.

[Tim]

I would suspect that stones thrown by the waves broke the windows.
Pssengers might have broken the odd window to escape, but all/nearly all of them seems a bit unlikely.
I doubt that waves alone could break modern toughened glass, but stones thrown up by the waves probably could.

I agree (and it looks nasty - glad no one was hurt)

[trainer]

The power of water is tremendous on its own, but these pictures show that one of the reasons not to stand too near the sea front watching heavy seas is that the water is full of debris and stones. 

[welshman]

There has been some misunderstanding as to what occurred.  The bus was heading from St David's to Haverfordwest, which means it was travelling southwards towards the camera in the first photograph.  The seaward side is to the left of that picture and the road is protected from the beach/sea by a shingle bank. 

The second photo from the offside rear of the bus is looking landwards.  The bus is not in the sea.

What appears to have happened is that the bus was hit on the offside by the sea/shingle and the front was pushed eastwards ie into the floodwater on the landward side, which is normally just boggy.

If you look at Google Earth or Google Maps you'll get the drift.