Episode 2 Living Dangerously

'The British weather is often unpredictable.

'It's now having an even bigger effect on our lives.

'Floods threaten our homes.

'Fires devastate our countryside

'and savage storms ravage our coastlines.'

We find out what happens to Britain when it's hit by freak weather.

We see stories of people's lives

turned upside down by the completely unexpected.

And we show you

how to help protect yourself, your home and your family from disaster.

Welcome to Living Dangerously.

We've all seen the headlines of flooding and storm damage.

What's it really like when extreme weather wrecks your life?

Today, two families tell their story.

'Coming up, the storm that left a couple's dream home

'teetering on the edge of a cliff.'

All of a sudden it just went wild.

'A lucky escape for the family whose house was struck by lightning.'

All I could hear was Shannon screaming.

'With home video, actual footage and reconstruction,

'we show what happened during these real life weather events.'

'Britain's an island nation with thousands of miles of coastline

'and sandy beaches catering to every taste.

'Many of us have such fond memories of holidays by the sea

'that it's a common dream to retire to the coast.

'Successful greengrocers Josie and Colin Arnold sold their business

'to fund their dream of running a hotel by the sea.

'They were searching east Yorkshire when they clapped eyes

'on the perfect spot, Cliff Farm,

'a derelict 150-year-old farmhouse with land

'and stupendous sea views.'

You just fall in love with places.

It had such potential where it was.

We could make a living out of it.

That's what we did, we made a cafe and caravan park,

a camping ground, from nothing.

'Josie and Colin got their farmhouse in 1988 for a bargain £10,000,

'but they sunk three times that amount into fixing it up.

'Getting the house in order took time.

'The roofs needed mending, walls had to be rebuilt

'and then there was plastering and decorating.

'Josie spent many a happy hour creating a cottage garden.

'Colin found himself continually making improvements.'

It's a building that you can't explain.

"I'll do a bit more to this, a bit more to that."

The character just sort of overtakes you.

'Within a year, everything was ready and the site opened for business.'

Then you get people coming to visit.

They fall in love with the place.

'For 19 years, families came to Cliff Farm

'to enjoy a holiday by the sea, and business thrived.

'Now, there's no sign of the campsite or the caravan park.

'Not even a hint of the land where it stood.

'Josie and Colin have had to abandon their farmhouse.

'They've invited me to their new home to hear how extreme weather shattered their dreams.'

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Hi. Nice to meet you.

-Are we through here?

-Yes. Go on through.

-Thank you.

Josie, paint the picture for me.

A time when it was really great being here at Cliff Farm.

It was beautiful.

We had a caravan park, a campsite with tents and tourers on.

It was lovely. We made friends with everybody.

We never advertised. They just came cos it was so lovely.

-You can't get any nearer the beach.

-You certainly can't!

It was really super.

'Josie and Colin couldn't believe their good luck

'to have such a wonderful place to live.'

It's something that people only ever dream about.

You look out of the window and it's the horizon. You see Bridlington.

You can see the white cliffs.

It can be quite incredible. I love it!

'With such amazing views, the Arnolds grew to enjoy

'watching the spectacular storms that hit the coastline here.

'With a comfortable distance between themselves and the breakers,

'it didn't cross their minds that waves could threaten their home.'

When we bought Cliff Farm, it was 90 to 100 feet from the cliff edge,

which is a long way.

You don't look at it and think, "That's going to disappear."

It's quite a permanent piece of...land.

'But the 30 foot cliffs here are made of boulder clay,

'a soft soil prone to landslips,

'as Josie and Colin learned to their peril

'when extreme weather hit without warning in 1996.'

-There was a massive storm here.

-Yes.

It doesn't happen often, all things come together -

high tide, spring tide,

northeasterly wind behind it.

And you're in it. It's coming straight for you.

It did it on New Year's Day.

I was actually cooking a meal in the afternoon, for the evening meal.

There was an enormous bang against the back wall.

We left the kitchen, which was on the sea side.

We couldn't bear to stay in there so we came out.

By four o'clock it was hitting the bathroom window on the first floor.

Every seventh wave, approximately, is a really big one.

It's a strange noise.

It's like thunder under the ground.

And before a big wave hits it goes silent.

It's silent and then you'd hear it rumbling.

You know that it's coming and there's nothing you can do about it.

All of a sudden, it just went wild.

It had started taking the fences down,

smashing them up against the wall.

It picked up a caravan and threw it across the garden, and a car.

It was astonishing. We'd never seen anything like it.

'Coming up on Living Dangerously,

'Josie and Colin show me what's left of their farmhouse.

'Find out what you need to know before buying a home.'

People have been sold properties at exorbitant prices

where local people knew they would have problems within a few years.

'Meet the Day family.

'Mum Julie, Dad Pete, and their three daughters Jodie,

'Shannon and Megan.

'They moved to Poole in Dorset two years ago

'and settled into a roomy semi-detached house with a garden

'big enough for barbecues and football.

'The house needed work, but Pete was happy to do it himself.'

I just decorated every room, putting our touch on it, really.

I'd just got all the work done before Christmas last year.

I said to my wife, Julie,

"This year will be the first summer that I would have to do nothing."

I could enjoy the garden, enjoy the area.

I hadn't got anything else to do. Well, that all changed.

Gale force winds and driving rain

combined to create chaotic conditions...

'On March 10 2007, the family woke up to high winds and heavy rain.'

I was listening to local radio.

They let us know whether the schools would be shut.

JINGLE: # 2CR FM! #

'It's Monday 10th March. I'm Paul Bunker. She's Caroline Verdon.

-'A rotten day in store, Caroline.

-Yes.

'If you're at Lytchett Minster school, don't worry about getting up, your school is closed.'

'This extreme weather was worse than most.'

'Commuters face tricky conditions...'

'For the youngest Day, Megan, it was rather frightening.'

She worries about the weather. I was telling her, "Don't worry."

She said, "What's going to happen?"

I said, "There'd be a few trees down."

It was bad windy weather that morning.

'With everyone at home, Julie does the ironing in the kitchen,

'while Megan and a friend watch TV in the lounge.

'Jodie and Shannon are upstairs going through their clothes.

'Even Jake the cat is enjoying a day relaxing at home.

'Suddenly, the storm takes a turn for the worse.'

The rain started getting even heavier.

My mum's car alarm started going off.

Instead of us shouting, "Mum, your car alarm's going off,"

we both went downstairs.

As we got to the middle of the stairs, there was a massive bang.

An explosion, I thought it was.

I could see smoke coming out the living room where my youngest was.

All the ceilings fell. Jodie was screaming cos something hit her.

The whole house shook. We didn't know what had happened.

'That's when Shannon catches a glimpse of something terrifying.'

I could see a reflection of orange. The mirror was shining on the door.

I could see orange flames at the door.

I went to the front room and grabbed my youngest one and her friend.

I could see all this black up the wall. I thought the TV had exploded.

'Julie was wrong. It was far worse.

'The house had been struck by lightning,

'setting it on fire in a matter of minutes.

'But it would be a while longer before anyone would realise.

'In the meantime, Julie gets Megan and her friend out of the house.

'With Jodie and Shannon inside, she bravely leaves the younger girls to head back in,

'without noticing the roof is on fire.

'Julie discovers that her daughters are looking for the family pet.'

All I could hear was Shannon screaming

for Jake her cat.

They are part of our family, they have been for eight years.

It's like leaving one of the children in the house, basically.

I didn't think about it. I just ran up the stairs.

'Understandable though it is to want to rescue a pet,

'this is the most dangerous thing to do in a house fire.'

I couldn't go further than the top of the stairs because of the debris.

The ceilings were on the beds.

If the cat was under there, there was nothing we could do.

'Unable to get to where the cat was last seen,

'Julie gives up, rushing Jodie and Shannon out to safety.'

The neighbour came running and said "move away from the house" cos the house was on fire.

'Amazingly, until this point, Julie had no idea

'that the entire top floor was burning.

'The blaze quickly spread, but help was on its way.'

As we were proceeding, we could see smoke.

We turned up into the road and could see there was a severe fire.

Every bedroom window was ablaze upstairs.

There was a large hole in the roof.

Two and two together - lightning strike. Hit the chimney stack.

Caused a large fire in that house.

'The girls watch in horror as everything they own burns.

'Julie frantically calls her husband to tell him.'

I said, "You need to get home. The house is on fire."

He didn't ask any questions.

I was running out the door. I didn't ask if everybody was OK.

"I'm five minutes from home and what am I going to find?"

'With gale force winds fanning the blaze,

'it takes three and a half hours and five crews to put out the inferno.'

I was thinking, "Everything's in there.

"All our documents, everything is going to be burned. Everything. Where do we start?"

Afterwards it dawns on you. What are you going to do?

'There are things you can do to protect your home and family

'from an electrical storm.

'Lightning strikes the highest point in a given area.

'Commercial buildings often have lightning conductors.

'They aren't usually necessary for private homes.'

It's very, very rare that lightning strikes your house.

If you are worried,

our advice would be, if there's a storm coming or whatever,

disconnect electrical appliances, especially your TV aerial.

If you've got a booster in the loft, disconnect that. Electric showers, that sort of stuff, unplug.

The lightning will travel down metal.

'Coming up, the Day family face homelessness.'

Where are we going to stay? What are we going to wear?

'And the hunt is on for a missing member of the family.'

'In 1988, Josie and Colin Arnold bought a fantastic clifftop property on the east Yorkshire coast,

'where they started a caravan park and campsite for holiday makers.

'Everything had been going fantastically well,

'when a storm unlike any they'd ever seen hit on New Year's Day 1996.

'The following day, the Arnolds couldn't believe their eyes.

'Their house was once 100 feet from the cliff edge.

'Now, 80 feet of their land had collapsed into the sea overnight.'

The camping site had gone.

It wasn't damaged. It had disappeared.

There was just no back garden.

It had taken the fences, plants.

All that was left was the toilet block and about 20 foot of land.

'That wasn't even the worst of it.'

When the storm hit,

it hit the wall so hard that it had caused massive cracks in the house.

The vibration... Cos the house literally jumped.

It cracked the walls so badly. It was unbelievable.

'Once, the North Sea seemed a comfortable distance away.

'With 20 feet between themselves and the cliff, it was dangerously close.

'Anyone else would have packed up.'

Sitting here listening to this, I'm imagining how one would react.

I suppose, faced with that kind of disaster,

you have to get on with it, is that the case?

When you get up next morning and the sea's flat, which it always is,

no-one would believe it had happened.

-What DO you do?

-We'd put too much into the place.

There was no way we were going to leave. You clean up and start again.

'In the wake of the destruction, Josie and Colin patched up the walls

'and continued to live in the house.

'The camping field was too damaged to keep open and they had to shut the cafe.

'The business they'd built up was ruined by one storm.

'Only the caravan site survived.

'With huge chunks of their land disappearing into the sea,

'the couple learned to keep a watch on the weather and the tides.'

We have a tide table on the wall,

so that we know when the tide's coming.

You do keep an eye out, listen to all the weather forecasts.

'You can imagine the Arnolds' horror

'when they saw a huge storm building out at sea on March 17 2007.'

If that was me,

I would be running as fast as I can. What did you do?

What we do in a storm is cook a meal, half a dozen bottles of wine,

shut yourself in the dining room,

then when it's all over, go outside and see what's happened!

-A real Blitz attitude!

-It's the only way.

There's nothing you can actually do about it when it is blowing.

'Josie and Colins' Blitz spirit had got them through previous storms

'but the weather was to prove more violent and long-lasting

'than anything they'd ever seen.'

It just had everything together.

It had a northeasterly wind, a howling gale, snow, hailstones.

This time, all of us were frightened.

'The Arnolds knew that the 4am tide was due to be the highest.

'So they stayed up to wait it out.'

It's so noisy, you wouldn't sleep anyway.

The wind screams.

Then you've got the sea banging

and water coming over the top of you so it's a very noisy job altogether.

So you don't sleep. No.

'Normally, storms blow in and out,

'but this one just kept building for three more days.'

The sea came over the top.

It was like being a surfer inside the wave.

It was a wall of brown water going over the top of the house.

They have such force, waves,

that it could, literally, pull the house down around you.

If it had destroyed the building while we were inside

the backwash would have taken us to sea, straight over the cliff.

I was afraid that time. It still worries me, even now.

'Eventually, the weather became calm again, as it always does.

'That's when they discovered what had happened.'

It lasted four days, eight tides.

Eight consecutive batterings. It never stood a chance.

We went into the house to see what the damage was. We opened...

Well, the back door was hanging off its hinges.

We went to see what the situation was there

and there was just space.

All the land there had gone.

And underneath the house as well.

'The pounding of the waves against the cliff, combined with heavy rains had caused a landslide.

'Their home, once 100 feet from the edge,

'was now threatening to fall onto the beach.'

That sounds terrifying.

When you did wake up and you had nothing left out the front, what conversation went on?

What did you plan?

We did realise straight away that it was probably a matter of demolition.

There was no way we could save it this time.

'The sea had stolen Josie and Colin's remaining 20 feet of land.

'The waves had flooded the ground floor,

'breaking windows and soaking the walls they had lovingly refurbished.

'The council condemned the house for health and safety reasons.

'The Arnolds had to demolish most of the house. It was a real tragedy.

'Now they're living in a mobile home on what's left of the caravan site.

'They took me to see the ruins of their 150-year-old farmhouse.'

Oh, my goodness!

What was this?

-The kitchen.

-Course. You can see the kitchen tiles.

-Still there.

'Where Josie cooked many a family meal

'is now exposed to the elements.'

-What was here?

-There was a porch on the front of it.

A wooden sun room built on.

Beyond that, the garden, then the road they used to drive round.

-You would look out of this window onto your porch?

-Yeah.

And the garden.

What's this on the wall here? This is beautiful.

We had them on the wall, birds and all sorts. It all came off.

It's beautiful.

'All that's left of the living room where they gathered is bricks.'

The huge fireplace. You can see the hearth we built.

-That was your fireplace!

-Yeah.

-Used to grow some nice grapes here.

-Did you?

-Yeah.

The most upsetting part is when we cut the grass.

The garden was so beautiful.

You miss that, more than anything else, really.

-Do you ever come here?

-No.

We come here and we keep the grass cut.

-But too many memories this side.

-We get a bit upset when we come.

-How does it leave you feeling when you come through?

-Sad.

'There are things you can do to avoid purchasing a home at risk.

'Miles and miles of UK coastline are eroding,

'being eaten away by the sea.

'This has been happening for centuries

'but now seems to be speeding up on some sections of coastline.

'Buying a house on the coast can be a massive gamble.'

The risks of buying a house on the fastest eroding coastline in Europe,

make sure you know what you're buying.

People have been sold properties at exorbitant prices,

where local people knew they would have problems within a few years.

How you get about it if you're considering living on the coast,

make sure that you talk to locals before you buy anything.

Find out the history, what the parish council knows.

Go to the local pub, the local shop and talk to people.

Don't take on face value, what you get in your Home Information Pack.

Chat to the locals. They have that knowledge to tell you if it's the place you want to live.

'Coming up on Living Dangerously,

'the Arnolds may be down but they're not out.

'This family picks itself up and starts again with a new business.'

We sell doughnuts now.

'And I knock on the council's door to find out if there's hope of compensation.'

'The Days - Pete, Julie and their three girls - live in Poole in Dorset.

'Life was a whirlwind of meal times, chores and socialising,

'until disaster struck and their semi was hit by lightning

'during a massive thunderstorm.

'It took five fire crews working non-stop for three and a half hours

'to get the blaze under control.

'The house was a burnt-out shell, leaving the Days homeless.'

Me and Pete were broken, basically.

We had to keep it together for the girls. They were in such a state.

They'd lost everything.

We haven't got any family down here.

They live in London. So where were we going to stay?

What were we going to wear?

Everything was racing through my mind.

That made me more upset.

I didn't really know what to do.

'The family had lost all their possessions, from furniture

'to irreplaceable family mementos.'

I'd done them all a special box each,

which were up in the loft, and it had everything in there.

They had special books from when they were born,

where I'd stuck their first tooth that had come out.

Everything, basically.

It was for them when they were older and it had all gone. Everything.

'Losing priceless belongings was bad enough, but it got worse.

'They'd had to abandon their beloved pet in the burning house.'

I thought the cat had died, to be honest.

But you can't tell children that.

You have to sort of try and give them the...

"It's going to be OK. We'll get Jake back. Everything will be OK."

'There was no way Julie was going to give up on Jake

'without checking the house one more time.'

Mum went in the garden of the burnt house and started calling him.

-And he actually came back.

-She came out with him in her arms.

So I ran up to her and grabbed him.

When I found Jake in the evening after the fire had been put out

he had all black round his nostrils

where he'd been shut in the house and inhaled so much smoke.

'Finding Jake was an enormous relief,

'but with so much destroyed, Julie and Pete found themselves overwhelmed by problems.

'Their home was a burnt-out shell, the roof gone, the bedrooms charred,

'and the lower floor damaged by the water used to put out the fire.

'The lightning's 300,000 volts

'left a huge scorch mark on the outside of the house.

'They needed to find a place to live and the basics to kit it out.

'The local newspaper ran an appeal. The response was unbelievable.'

The paper, the Echo, did a scoop and ran an appeal for my family.

We were homeless and they did a four-day scoop on the fire

for myself and my neighbours.

The response was just phenomenal.

We had hundreds of phone calls, literally.

Pete's mobile didn't stop for that week we were staying with friends,

wanting to donate anything from bedding, clothing for the children,

TVs, everything, basically, that we'd lost, people were offering.

'But having the basics was only the start.

'The family stayed in rental accommodation while they sorted out the house insurance.

'Like many, the Days paid their premiums year after year, assuming that they were adequately covered.

'Pete had gone on a cost comparison site to find the best priced option.

'But he and Julie discovered their policy didn't cover quite what they thought it did.'

We were covered for up to 150,000 on our buildings,

which we were told was adequate insurance.

We thought, "That's good. We've got enough insurance."

That was one thing we didn't think we'd have to worry about.

It wasn't till the building quotes started coming in

that we realised there may be a problem.

The quotes were coming in higher than we were covered for.

I was a nervous wreck for the next three or four months, literally.

My head wasn't together at all.

'Eventually, Pete found a project manager

'willing to take on the work for the amount the insurance would pay out.

'He learned an important lesson.'

I'm a family man.

Every month I try to keep my expenses, my pay-out down.

Obviously, I went for a cheaper option on insurance.

Cheapest is not always the best.

From now on, I will rather pay out that extra few pounds a month on insurance. Peace of mind.

'It's been eight months and the family's itching to get out of rental accommodation.'

It's not home and we want to get home,

get the girls back to normality.

I'll hold the box. You tape.

'The Days are finally moving back to their refurbished house.

'Everyone is excited.

'Which explains why Jodie and Shannon are so eager to help.'

You hear about lightning striking properties, trees and things.

You just never would think it would happen.

This has been the biggest life-changing experience we've had.

'Only a few months ago, the home looked fit for the wrecking ball,

'with no roof and every room damaged beyond recognition.

'The scene was so shocking that the insurance surveyor thought initially

'that it might be better to knock down than rebuild.

'But the work's completed and the house transformed.

'The family can't believe how far they've come.'

This room was totally... It wasn't burnt,

but it was water damaged, ceilings down, plaster off the walls

so it's been completely redone.

You could just see the sky out here.

All the ceilings upstairs were on the landing where we're standing.

All the rooms were burnt to a frazzle and had to be rebuilt,

replastered, redecorated.

It's looking good, nearly finished.

This was the main room that was struck by lightning.

The roof above us was actually struck

and this ceiling here fell straight down to Jodie's bed.

Jodie's bed was here.

The whole bed was covered with roof tiles and bits of roof.

-It's looking good.

-'The girls are happy.'

'Shannon's ditched her pink decor for something more sophisticated.'

I like my new room. It's much more grown up.

I like the colours better.

'Jodie has traded her small bedroom for a gigantic loft extension.

'A few months ago, this was open to the sky.'

I love it. It's a lot different to my old room. My old room was pink.

I've still got my bathroom pink, and it's a lot bigger. I'm happy.

'Exhausted by the strain of the past months,

'Julie and Pete are relieved to have the ordeal finished.'

It feels like being home again. It's been a long time coming.

-The next few weeks will be busy.

-Yeah, unpacking.

-We can do it in our own time.

-Yeah.

CORK POPS

'After all the Days have been through, it's time to celebrate.'

Cheers!

'There's no question that this has left an impression.'

'We've been struck now and it would be very unfortunate'

to be struck again!

It's always in the back of your mind, every time we have a storm.

I always found that we were lucky, before this.

It's opened my eyes a little bit

and I'm a bit more apprehensive when there's storms, yeah.

'The Days are thrilled to be back home

'and, with any luck, lightning won't strike twice.'

'Josie and Colin Arnold's life was devastated in 2007,

'when a huge storm left their seaside home dangling over a cliff.

'The house was condemned and they had to pull most of it down

'to prevent it falling.

'And the insurance they paid for 20 years

'didn't pay out for coastal erosion.

'Resourceful and determined to stay on their land,

'the Arnolds now live in a mobile home they purchased on the internet.

'It's a far cry from their farmhouse but it's cosy

'and allows them to stay exactly where they want to be, by the sea.'

-What keeps you here?

-We just love it here.

We've been here so long, 20 years.

-It's the longest we've been anywhere.

-Yes.

-We don't want to go.

By about 17 years, I think.

I say that we'll put this into the middle of the road rather than go.

It's on wheels, so we can.

LAUGHTER

There's always a next step.

I told the council that while there's width for a campervan, I'll stay here.

'As a result of two horrible storms, Josie and Colin lost their home

'and a £16,000 per year business.

'The situation, though extreme, is not an isolated one.

'17% of the UK coastline is disappearing,

'posing a problem for many home owners.

'The council is fighting to help the Arnolds rebuild their lives.

'I set up a meeting with councillor Jane Everson to find out more.'

They thought they had 40 or 50 years.

They genuinely did, and they had every right to expect that.

I'd heard it said, "If people buy houses on the clifftop, what do they expect?" Well, they didn't.

They bought a farmhouse that was inland, and started a business,

expecting to see their working life out on that piece of land.

The acceleration of erosion has been extraordinary over the last two years.

'It used to be the case that the government advocated sea defences

'to protect at-risk shoreline.

'Recent policy recommends letting nature take its course.

'This puts homeowners in a difficult position,

'particularly when insurance often won't pay out

'and their homes have lost their value.'

We say to government, "You won't let anybody defend property.

"You won't let any defences take place."

There's an argument that says

if you won't let anybody defend their homes,

they've got to watch them be washed away,

surely there's an argument for these people caught in the middle

that there should be a package, ideally some sort of compensation?

What could be the best case scenario for the Arnolds?

Well, in a perfect world, we get some compensation for them,

and another piece of land somewhere along the coastline

that they can move their mobile home on to.

They would be happy for the rest of their lives. They're not asking for a lot.

They just got caught out.

-Fingers crossed for the Arnolds. They're lovely people.

-Absolutely.

'Whatever the future holds,

'Josie and Colin haven't given up.'

There you go, my lovely.

Thank you.

'They've risen to the challenge and got a new business

'at Skirlington market, a thriving Sunday market

'with over 350 indoor and outdoor stalls.'

We sell doughnuts for a living now.

Not a big income, but it's OK. It keeps the wolf from the door.

SHE HUMS

I sing whatever comes into my head.

'This new enterprise is testament to the Arnolds' canny ability to adapt.

'And, between you and me, it's also a way for Josie to show off

'her considerable talents as a baker.'

There you go, pet. Thank you.

'With the queues to prove it!

'Happy as she is, Cliff Farm is never far from her thoughts.'

It's become a special place.

If anybody said to me, "Would you do it again?" Yes.

'She and Colin aren't moving any time soon.'

Cheers. Cheers.

We can certainly hold out for the couple of years we've got left.

Might be longer or shorter, but we'll still be here, for sure.

Join us next time for more amazing stories on Living Dangerously.

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