Episode 5 Living Dangerously

The British weather is a constant topic of conversation.

Often unpredictable, it's now having an even bigger effect on our lives.

Dangerous floods threaten our homes, forest fires devastate our

countryside and savage storms ravage our coastlines.

Today, we find out what happens to Britain

when it's hit by freak weather.

We see the stories of people's lives

who have been turned upside down by the totally unexpected.

And we show you how to protect yourself,

your home and your loved ones from disaster.

Welcome to Living Dangerously.

We've all seen the horrendous headlines of hurricanes,

flooding and storm damage.

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

Well, today, we hear two true

stories of catastrophe and survival.

Coming up on Living Dangerously, a vicious Atlantic storm causes

the worst floods in living memory in a vulnerable West Sussex town.

There was nothing to be done.

It rapidly became obvious there was no defence against it.

And the heaviest rains in Scotland for 30 years

lead to dangerous landslides,

leaving motorists stranded at a Highland beauty spot.

I've never ever witnessed a flood and rain of such intensity

and so many landslides occurring at one time.

With home video, actual footage and reconstruction,

we show what happened during these real life weather events.

Set on the south coast of West Sussex,

the seaside town of Selsey has been a popular holiday destination

for many families since the 1930s.

Whilst the British weather doesn't always guarantee

blue skies and sunshine, in the summer Selsey's numbers double

as holidaymakers descend on its guest houses and giant caravan park,

just a stone's throw from the beach.

This summer resort is also home to Roger Butlin and his daughter, Amy,

and where their family have held strong roots for almost 40 years.

My family were travelling show people.

My father wanted a more settled life,

so he came along to Selsey and set up a small funfair on the seafront.

Along with the community spirit and the atmosphere in Selsey,

it was an ideal place to come and live.

Whilst his brother ran the family funfair,

Roger continued in the entertainment vein,

taking over a local bar and club 15 years ago.

Set within the huge caravan park,

the club's attracted locals and holidaymakers alike,

who came down in large numbers to party the night away.

But these halcyon days were numbered.

In March 2008, Selsey was to experience a storm

of such great magnitude,

it would mean lives would never be the same again.

So I'm meeting Roger, who lives next door to his daughter, Amy,

to find out exactly what happened.

-Hi, Roger?

-Hello.

-Nadia.

-Nice to meet you. Come on in.

-Thank you.

Ah, this is lovely. And a beautiful day. Which side is Amy?

Actually it's on this side, so we're adjoining with a gate.

-Oh, look! Lovely.

-So there's no problems for the wedding

-and the barbies and all the things we do.

-Oh, lovely!

-We're very close, my daughter and I.

-You'd need to be.

-So you and Amy worked together at the Windmill?

-Oh, yes.

She was basically brought up there. She was an asset to the business.

She was able to be carried around while we were doing

the prize bingo on the mike, bits and pieces like that.

So, yes, she grew up in the business. We work together very well, actually.

When I left school, I decided to help my father out in the clubs.

I started from helping him with bingo tickets, change,

to being in the arcade, to the prize bingos.

And then, eventually, I was 18 and I was allowed to work in the bar.

And I think us being there helped everyone get together

and it was a good place for them to meet up and have a good time.

But while Roger's social clubs lay at the heart of the local community,

there was always an underlining threat from Britain's

unpredictable weather hanging over them.

Selsey has historically suffered from coastal erosion and it lies

below sea level, making it doubly vulnerable to flooding.

Over the years, sea defences have been built and the beach's

shingle bank is regularly replenished to act as a buffer,

stopping the sea from taking over the low lying town.

But these reinforcements haven't been invincible.

Storms have reached the defences a number of times in recent years.

So while flooding isn't unusual for locals, nothing could prepare them

for the vicious storm that hit the coastal town,

causing the worst floods for 75 years.

I'm sorry to do this to you, Roger, but I'm going to have

to take you back to March 2008 and the dreadful storm that hit Selsey.

The evening before the storm, of course, we'd opened the clubs

in the normal way and, erm, we'd closed around 11-ish.

And there was a brisk wind going on, which you're quite used to

on the coast. It does blow, obviously, being so near the sea.

Roger left the club and drove five minutes inland to his home.

He went to bed after midnight, just as winds started blowing in

from the southwest and rain set in as a deep depression from

the Atlantic began to move in on the West Sussex town.

During the night it definitely increased. You could hear

the wind rattling the windows almost, although the house is double glazed.

It was really blowing quite badly and the sea

was coming over the shingle bank.

As the storm increased, people across Selsey were worrying

about their homes, but for Roger even more was at stake.

Though his house was safe some distance inland,

his livelihood hung in the balance.

The social club he owned and which provided his family with a living

was in an incredibly exposed position,

just a few hundred yards from the seafront.

During the night you have the anxieties about

the building and the structures. One part of the building's quite

modern and the other part's been there certainly since the war.

And it's a flat roof building,

so you worry about flat roofs being torn off and things.

We had a tornado a few years ago, which went through Selsey,

and literally did rip off roof tops. So you began to worry whether

this was something which would have that type of effect.

But by the early hours Selsey was a weather war zone.

The Atlantic storm had developed in ferocity, with winds hitting 70mph,

causing sea swells of over three feet

that breached Selsey's sea defences.

20 foot waves crashed on to the shingle beach,

showering properties not far from Roger's social club.

The people of Selsey were having to batten down the hatches

as they braced themselves for an almighty battle

against the raging elements. But this was just the beginning

of the devastation the mighty force of nature can inflict.

It was apparent that this was a really exceptional occurrence.

This wasn't just normal storms.

This was something additional to that.

The combination of the high spring tides as well as this

crush of water which was coming off the Atlantic,

pushed by this huge storm going on in the Atlantic.

We began to get worried that this was something unusual,

something above the normal events which we're used to in Selsey.

Coming up later on Living Dangerously,

Roger's worst fears are realised as he faces a battle to save his club.

It was too much water, too much pressure going on.

So it rapidly became obvious there was no defence against it.

Set between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands in Perthshire

are the Trossachs, known as the Highlands in miniature.

This awesome landscape is defined by its many lakes and valleys.

It's also home to Glen Ogle, a steep sided valley popular

with hikers because of its dramatic views and nearby Loch Earn,

beloved of fishermen who come here to catch its fine trout and salmon.

A place locals, like Stuart "Tipper" Webster, are extremely proud of.

Best place in the world. It's absolutely magic.

No doubt whatsoever. I wouldn't move anywhere else.

It's scenery, fishing. It's just everything. Wild life everywhere.

I walk up the road every morning at half past five with my dog

and you see everything from rabbits to deer, everything.

But with this beauty comes danger. The weather in Glen Ogle

can be every bit as dramatic as its scenery.

Heavy rain often turns the sheer valley sides

into a dangerous landscape at risk of landslides.

And with one of Scotland's major highways

cutting through this stunning pass,

it's a valley all too familiar to the mountain rescue team.

Glen Ogle area's pretty rugged.

One of the best descriptions I've ever seen about it was

likened to the Kyber Pass

and what with the steep crags on each side and the road

and the old railway winding through it,

it must be one of the most spectacular passes in Scotland.

But on August 18th, 2004, it wasn't the spectacular scenery that would

attract the world's attention. Glen Ogle was about to suffer

the worst rainfall in Scotland for 30 years.

First thing that morning,

Michael was helping out as a dog handler on a local grouse shoot.

Weather started off not too bad in the morning and got sort of

very humid in the afternoon and thunderstorms started building.

And the views, we can see into all the different glens from this area.

You could see thunderstorms building up in the glens and they all seemed

to be heading towards us from different directions.

And the atmosphere was feeling,

well, feeling electric and getting quite tense.

The event was called off around three pm and so Michael headed on

the A85 towards the Glen Ogle pass.

The heavens opened up. 6cm of rain were to fall in just two hours and

it didn't take long for rainwater to come gushing down the hills.

Water was starting to come from everywhere

where water doesn't normally come from.

And then coming round at the top to Glen Ogle to find cars stuck

in a flood at the top, blocking the road completely,

you started to feel something wasn't going quite right.

Just ahead of Michael, council worker Tipper Webster

was travelling on the same stretch of road.

While he was used to seeing floods in this area,

nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to come across.

It was torrential rain.

Just never let up at all.

Kevin McKenzie and I were sent up

some time in the afternoon,

about the middle of the afternoon, to put up the flood signs.

But when we got there, there was rubble across the road.

It was just a mini thing,

but it was bad enough that cars could nae cross it.

I came out the van after I parked it across the road to go and

warn people to stay where they were.

Mini-landslides were falling all along the Glen Ogle pass.

In front of Tipper, 30 cars were blocked by falling debris,

caused by the sheer weight of water.

He'd already parked and was out of his truck,

warning other motorists coming up behind of the potential danger.

Meanwhile, half a mile further back, Michael Holliday was helping

drivers caught up by the flooding on the same road and he heard news

that there was even more trouble up ahead.

Talking to one of the drivers who had just come up

the hill from Lochearnhead, telling me to be careful going down as there

was water and stones now running down the road in Glen Ogle.

The extent of the damage the extreme weather was causing

was all too obvious around the Glen Ogle area.

Rivers had now burst their banks and roads were being washed away.

With the weather showing no sign of stopping,

Tipper feared a much bigger landslide.

I parked my vehicle right across the road so's nobody could come down.

It just blocked the road.

And then I walked about 20 yards and heard the rumble.

And I turned round and then the big one happened.

It was thousands of tonnes of stuff.

And that came down in less than a minute.

The noise was horrendous.

It just, oh, it just tore down right across the road

and my poor pick-up disappeared over the edge.

Must have been about 40ft down the banking. Just mangled.

I've never seen anything like in my life and I was

at two other landslides, but it was nothing like that one.

It was just absolutely horrendous.

At the same time,

having driven through the flood in his four-by-four,

Michael got to the Glen Ogle pass as the huge landslide

started sliding across the road in front of him.

The road was completely blocked and a big mass of mud and rocks and water

all moving down across the road and down into the bottom of the glen,

and carrying along with it the yellow council truck

with the orange lights still flashing.

My original reaction when I saw the truck heading off down the hill was,

"I wonder if there's anybody in it?"

The windows were closed and worrying whether

it was actually going to get buried.

Would it roll over? Would something else happen to it,

as opposed to it just sliding down with the mud flow?

And at that time I was thinking, "How the hell are we going

"to get down there and find out whether there's anybody in it?"

Michael's rescue instinct kicked in. With total disregard for his safety,

he plunged into the slipping mud to check if anyone was in the van.

It was up to the knees and really grabbing

at your legs and still moving. I managed to climb into

the back of the truck and got no response from the truck,

but I couldn't even see through the windows. So I managed to find

some of the tools in the back and put a pickaxe through the window and

then saw that the truck was empty, except for newspapers and sandwiches.

Tipper had got out of his van in the nick of time.

To see my vehicle getting swept away,

it was like a matchbox getting swept away.

I'm just glad I wasnae in it, I tell you.

Just the power of that lot coming down, it just floated away.

And people are gasping, cos they didnae know that we were the driver.

For Tipper, it was an extremely lucky escape,

but not for the van.

It was a total write off.

I'm just glad I wasnae in it.

But the drama didn't end there. 20 vehicles and 57 people were

now trapped on the mountainside with no way out.

This line of cars and buses was completely stranded now between two

landslides with the possibility of other landslides

occurring in between.

Coming up later on Living Dangerously,

as the heavy downpour over Glen Ogle showed no sign of abating,

the fate of the stranded motorists hung in the balance.

My biggest concern was to get these people to safety,

cos nobody could get through to us, other than with a helicopter.

Back in Selsey, West Sussex, on the night of March 9th, 2008,

a vicious Atlantic storm wreaked havoc on the residents

of the low lying, seaside town.

Heavy rain combined with 70mph gales whipped up 20ft waves that smashed

in the coastline and breached sea defences.

It was a sleepless night for Selsey residents, including Roger Butlin.

You could hear the wind rattling the windows.

It was apparent that this was a really exceptional occurrence.

This wasn't just normal storms.

The next morning, the storm was still going strong when Selsey

awoke to find parts of the town

engulfed in a foot of floodwater after 800 metres of the shingle

beach had been washed away. As early as he could,

Roger and his daughter, Amy, who was six months pregnant at the time,

headed for the seafront to check on their club.

We had the feeling that the main storm had passed.

We went down to work and started getting the club ready.

On the way there was puddles and bits and pieces

and the wind was very strong.

When they got to the club, all seemed fine.

But two hours later,

the Atlantic storm ambushing Selsey began to change.

The rain subsided, but gales continued to batter the town.

Up the road at the giant caravan park overlooking the beach,

and home to Roger's family funfair for the past 40 years,

the next battle with the elements was about to begin.

Well, my brother phoned me, saying he needed help urgently because

this huge swell had come in, this water had come over,

and it was starting to damage his equipment on his funfair.

So we had to go and then help him.

And I was astounded that the water was there.

And how were you feeling at this point?

Was there any grave concerns?

To be absolutely honest, no.

I have to say no, because I know his premises is quite low.

But as the time went on...

two to three hours later...

the water got to four foot deep.

Gale force winds continued to assault the Selsey coastline.

With the beach washed away and huge waves overpowering sea defences,

at around lunchtime, the town's caravan site that has

over 2,000 mobile homes was taken over by the sea,

leaving some 30 caravaners marooned.

The major emergency service that could come to the rescue

was the Royal National Lifeboat Institution,

who scrambled their boats.

We made it through the floods, cos both the roads to access

the caravan site were flooded

and it was just total devastation.

Up to three to four foot of water.

It's notorious down that end of Selsey for flooding, but this was particularly bad.

It was extremely violent weather.

All the people were stuck in their caravans.

That was the problem and there was no other way to evacuate them than by boat.

So that was the priority, to get the people out

and up to dry land as quickly as possible,

as we didn't know if it was going to deteriorate any more than that.

While the RNLI worked hard to evacuate 30 people stranded

in the caravan park, Roger had been helping his brother

salvage what they could of the family funfair.

At 2pm, he finally got back to his pregnant daughter, Amy, who was waiting for him at the social club.

Overhead, the sky was clearing.

The rain had stopped, but the 70mph winds refused to let up.

Roger was exhausted but confident they were far enough inland to escape the floodwaters.

Then suddenly, all hell broke lose.

As soon as my father arrived,

we saw that the water was actually breaking from right at the back.

Amy captured on her mobile phone the moments her dad tried to battle against the raging force.

I went round the back of the club, which is the side nearest the sea,

and from that direction came this swell of water, which was...

I can't say it was a tidal wave, exactly, but a huge rush of water,

which hit the back wall of the club

and then started to flow at a tremendous rate of knots.

Roger attempted to stave off the flood, but it was hopeless,

so he made his way back into the club to save what he could.

How were you reacting to each other? Was there panic?

Well, initially, I thought that it was just again a flood, but I've never seen water like this before.

And once we'd sand-bagged up as much as we could and then put bits of carpet and stuff by the door,

suffered it as much as we could for around an hour or so.

We definitely tried to resist it.

We moved what we could.

We turned the electric off.

That type of thing.

But then it became pretty apparent around, say 3, 3:30,

an hour or so later, that there was nothing more you could do.

Things were floating...

Terrifying!

-Absolutely.

-You must have felt so sad looking at the devastation

in this place that had been, you know, such a big part of your life.

Well, yes. And one of the funny things is, when we

eventually paddled through the lower part of the flood, and the water

had gone down to around a foot, that the dance floor was floating,

-which was astounding.

-The whole floor was?

The whole floor actually rose up, so as you walk over it,

it's actually a wave because the sea pressure was so strong it lifted it up.

After that, there was nothing to be done.

It was too much water, too much pressure going on.

And sandbags maybe two to three bags high, but only around, say, 15 ins to 2 ft tall.

The water was above that and it finds other nooks and crannies

to creep in, other doorways you don't know, emergency doors you haven't allowed for.

So it rapidly became obvious there was no defence against it.

The floodwater poured into the club,

reaching as high as 4 ft up the wall before settling at 2.

You'd been in the water all that time.

All that you'd been through that day.

You must have been exhausted.

It's very difficult when something happens like this.

You don't know

whether to panic, run or what to do.

It's really quite astounding, the emotions you go through.

By the evening, more than a square mile of the caravan site had been

submerged by the coastal flood, the worst to hit Selsey in 75 years.

The storm-force winds continued as stranded caravaners took shelter

in Roger's bar which, being slightly higher up than the social club,

had so far escaped the flooding.

But the water continued to rise and by now Roger was terribly worried about his pregnant daughter, Amy.

He decided they should risk escaping on foot across the cliff top to the Coastguard station,

where they could get picked up and then taken home to safety.

The emergency service came along and started to...

figure out ways of getting people up to perhaps Selsey town hall.

It was apparent they were having to wait for boats to come along

to ferry people out, but that was slow in arriving.

So I made a decision that if we go into the storm

along the beach itself, on a sort of cliff top,

to the Coastguard station, that should be passable.

When we realised that was the only way... Obviously, the waves were getting quite high again,

so it was very, very frightening.

The emergency service didn't want to allow us because they've actually

yellow-taped it off as being too dangerous to go that way,

but I felt that my daughter's needs were greater, and my judgment was sound.

Walking along the little, narrow track,

which was literally a little, tiny track, was hairy in itself.

It was all wet and it was only a mud track.

And by then it started to get a bit dusky and a bit dark in the evening.

And we had to cling on to each other quite a bit to get along, and I had

to support her, cos it's quite a slippery track.

-How long did it take you?

-Oh, five or ten minutes.

It don't sound a long time, but it's quite a long time to do 500 yards.

We managed to get to the Coastguard station in the end

and my son-in-law, Darren, was there with his car.

So we were able to come home and at least relax physically, if not mentally.

Coming up later on Living Dangerously... With Roger and his daughter, Amy, now safe

from the flood, what hope was there for his popular social club?

And it's a bit like the circus has left town. You can walk through there

now and I can picture vividly all the activities going on...

-It's so sad, isn't it?

-Very difficult, yes. Very difficult.

The deep-cut valley of Glen Ogle, located between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands,

is a dramatic setting, typical of Scotland's stunning landscape.

But this gorge was turned into a danger zone on August 18th, 2004,

when persistent torrential rains had saturated the ground,

leading to life-threatening landslides.

I've never ever witnessed a flood and rain of such intensity

and so many landslides occur at one time.

Never seen landslides come down so far and carry on

right into the bottom of the glen, carrying everything with them...

trees, boulders, everything.

Tipper Webster had narrowly escaped death when his truck was swept away after he stopped to help motorists.

But the problem now was that there was some 57 people trapped

on the road, cut off by landslides either end.

My biggest concern was to get these people to safety,

cos nobody could get through to us.

If another landslide came, there was a possibility

it could take people off the road, take their cars off the road.

So it was imperative that somehow we managed to get people from these vehicles and it certainly wasn't safe

for them to walk down into the bottom of the glen, because

the burn in the bottom of the glen now was an absolute raging torrent.

And even if it was only up to your knees,

it would have taken everybody away with them.

Meanwhile, Tipper's son, Darren Webster, a volunteer firefighter,

got an ominous premonition when he saw the results of that day's heavy rains.

The day the landslide happened, myself and Susan, my wife,

were standing looking out the window, and it was just like

a river going past the window.

And I said to Susan that it's not going to be long before I get a call-out.

And, literally, moments later, the pager went off and that was it, we were off.

Half an hour after the landslides began, the fire brigade were called

to Glen Ogle to rescue the trapped motorists.

But the downpour that had been battering the area all afternoon

meant the firefighters were blocked halfway up the gorge by debris

that had been washed down the mountain.

We had to leave the appliance.

We all took, like, shovels, spades, a first-aid kit, oxygen,

and we all proceeded on foot up the hill for about another two and a half, three miles

to where the landslide was.

To add to the tension, the firefighters had been told that

a van had been swept off the road,

and had no idea whether anyone was still in it, dead or alive.

It was certainly quite hard going up there, just knowing that it could be a local that's been swept away.

You don't want to go to any accident, whether it be a stranger

or a local, but knowing it's a local's sometimes a wee bit harder.

But running up, my dad was running down and I could see he was quite kind of white.

And when he said to me it was his truck, a wee shiver went down

my spine, thinking, "It could have been you that was wiped out."

But to actually see him OK was a big relief.

But the drama wasn't over yet.

At around 5pm, two hours after the downpour started,

the skies were black as heavy rain continued to fall on Glen Ogle.

57 motorists were still trapped on the roadside and, with a real risk

of further landslides, time was rapidly turning against them.

Pouring, absolutely pouring. Some of them had flimsy clothes on when they got out of the car.

We had nothing to give them, cos any stuff I had was in my vehicle that was down the bank.

And they just had to bear it. Nothing they could do.

Firefighters are here to save lives and the only way they could do that

was to get the stranded motorists off the mountainside

before they were swept away by any further landslides.

Our initial thoughts was, "Is there any more going to come down?"

Especially with the amount of people that was stuck in the middle of the landslide.

The officers did think of taking them out by foot, but they thought it might be too dangerous.

So that's when the Sea King helicopter was scrambled

and it was on the scene only 10, 15 minutes after we arrived there.

By now, the rain had started to ease off, but the threat of further

landslides was still a clear and present danger.

So search-and-rescue helicopters were scrambled

from nearby RAF and Navy military bases.

The moment the helicopters arrived on the scene,

they immediately sorted the situation out and started winching people off,

as they really didn't have many options of where to land

to load people up, the road being steep-sided.

We were all standing there.

I mean, there was always somebody constantly keeping looking up the mountain, because

with the amount of rain there was, nobody knew if there was going to be another landslide or not.

Nobody can predict if there's going to be another landslide or not.

So you were always having just that wee sneaky peek up yourself,

to make sure that everything was still as it was five minutes ago.

After helping trapped motorists into the military helicopters,

Darren's dad, Tipper, was one of the last people to be winched to safety.

They seemed to just take it, you know, I had to go and that was it,

cos there was no other way out, no other way out.

I mean, I'd never been in a helicopter myself.

It was quite frightening, especially when you banked to go round a corner.

Each of the two rescue helicopters probably made about three trips

and from here, flying to Killin, where they could land in a field,

would probably take about five minutes.

Get the people off.

The people then would get in Land Rovers and be moved to the village hall.

And the helicopter back on scene and hovering again was pretty damn quick and very efficient.

Torrential rain had battered Glen Ogle for just two hours,

but the sheer volume of what fell

led to the horrific landslides, which could have been devastating,

but thankfully there were no casualties.

To have to rescue this amount of people in one go is something that

I've certainly never been involved in and, hopefully, never will be again.

Unbelievably, there were no further landslides

during the dramatic rescue

and all 57 motorists, as well as Tipper,

were safely winched off the highway.

I just went home and had a cup of tea and I was literally sick.

Started thinking about it. And I was off my work for a week with stress.

It was five years ago that the floods and landslides hit the Glen Ogle pass

and, while it's been flooded some 40 times since,

there have been no more landslides.

But that's been of no great reassurance to Tipper.

People could have been killed, including me.

For a long time after, I passed that landslip, you automatically look up

to see if there's anything coming down.

And who can blame him?

After what happened at this Scottish beauty spot in August 2004,

it just goes to show that you never know what calamities the British weather can bring.

Selsey in West Sussex was the scene of dreadful devastation

when the weather turned against it in March 2008.

A vicious Atlantic storm hit the low-lying coastal town,

causing huge sea swells and 20ft waves

to breach sea defences, resulting in the worst flooding for 75 years.

30 people stranded in the town's caravan park were safely evacuated,

while Roger Butlin and his pregnant daughter Amy

fought against the elements to make it to safety.

It was terrible weather. The situation was to go on to the cliff and walk to the coastguard tower.

But Roger's popular social club, that's been at the heart of the Selsey community for 30 years,

didn't get off so lightly.

So, once the insurance and loss adjusters came and had a look at the property, what were you told?

Initially, we were told that they could get it back together again.

It would take a certain amount of time.

But it became obvious as time went by that the main club really was beyond economic repair.

The fabric had been damaged.

The amount of damage in the furnishings, carpets, dance floor,

stage area, electrics, all that type of thing, was beyond repair.

We knew then that we would be shutting the business.

The coastal flood of March 2008 took a terrible toll on Selsey.

Whilst Roger lost his business, he wasn't the only one to suffer.

In total, the residents of Selsey suffered over £5 million of damage.

Roger's club has now been condemned, but he still plucked up the courage to go back and show me around.

It's incredible, looking at the place, Roger,

-because to look at it, you wouldn't think there was anything wrong.

-No, that's true.

It's mostly internal. But the water coming along the front...

This area actually is a lot lower than the front, and it slopes away into there.

But this was around two foot deep of water, maybe even more with the rush of water coming through.

And it laid here for two or three days.

We can't go in, can we? Because it's got to come down, this building.

-Yes.

-But just having a look in there... What was this in here?

-This was the prize bingo unit,

which is a unit you sit around with the shutter cards and put the little numbers across

and with the little ping-pong balls. Nice display of cuddly toys, tea sets, that type of thing.

And how high did the water come up to, here? If you show me on there.

Not quite to the window ledges, but quite high.

Somewhere around there at its peak.

Obviously, there was a subsidence to a base level, if you like, of around 18 inches or so,

which is around halfway up that middle pane of glass there, that clear glass.

But enough to do severe damage. And I remember this door here...

It's a bit battered and bent now.

-Was that all done by the water?

-A lot of this was done by the water. The bottom pane was done, there.

And this paving was actually lifted, which is quite astounding, isn't it?

-Yeah, and it really brings home to me how frightening it actually must have been.

-Oh, yes.

This is the door we used on the day, and some of the cracks were because of the wind and slamming the doors.

And that's the door I came out, initially, to see what was going on.

I'm walking along and you're looking there and it's totally wrecked.

I get sense that it's almost... a haunting feeling. Isn't it?

Cos there was all this life in there and now it's just absolutely desolate.

-How does it leave you feeling?

-Well, it's a bit like the circus had left town.

I don't know if you've seen a picture of nice, green grass with the circle where the ring used to be,

or the funfair rides...

-I'm actually getting a little bit flushed thinking about it, because it is very emotive, you know.

-Yes.

You can walk through there now... and I can picture, vividly, all the activities going on...

-It's so sad, isn't it?

-Very difficult, yes. Very difficult.

Following the dramatic sea storms in Selsey, 800 metres of its shingle beach was washed away,

as well as almost seven square kilometres of land, which led to the devastating floods,

while the shingle beach has been replenished to act as a buffer against the sea.

As we've seen, there's no guarantee that it and the existing sea defences

can fight off coastal flooding.

So what of Selsey's future?

I met up with Dee Caldwell of the Save Our Selsey group to find out

what needs to be done to preserve this low-lying coastal town.

Dee, why was there flooding here last March?

Because, basically, the sea's coming in and it's very difficult to stop it.

It's very expensive to stop it and, eventually, the sea defences let the side down.

So what's changed along here?

The process of beach management has changed.

Here, you can see we've got fantastic defence. This is what the district council have done.

And then all the way down the beach, there's no real groynes any more.

They've all been taken out and there's a different policy of running the beach management.

What could have prevented the flooding then, if anything?

Throwing a bucketload of money at it.

If you're considering buying a property near the sea or a river,

you can check on the Environment Agency website to see whether it's in an area prone to flooding.

But if you already live in a high-risk area, you can make sure you're well prepared

in the event of a flood, as James Humphrys from the Environment Agency explains.

You need a list of things to have put by.

Know where they are. Know where to turn off your utilities.

Have a wind-up torch, a wind-up radio.

Have your most valuable documents such that you can either take them with you

or put them in a high part of your property.

Consider vulnerable people nearby. Consider pets. Consider your car.

There's a long list of things that it's worth having on a checklist,

so that in the time before you suspect flooding might impact upon you,

you know what you're going to do and you can provide yourself the best possible chance of surviving it well.

Despite the devastating storm of March 2008, Roger and his daughter Amy haven't been beaten.

The gutsy duo love their seaside town and, while they may no longer have the social club,

they did get some compensation from insurers to make a fresh start with a new business.

And three months after the coastal flood, they got the best present ever, Madison.

I think the clubs will always hold tremendous memories for me.

It's a huge chunk of your life that you devote to that type of business.

It's not a job, it's a way of life.

They say every cloud's got a silver lining.

We had two, actually, or I had two.

My granddaughter Madison was born.

She was a huge silver lining.

A gold lining, really.

And the other bit of the silver lining was we came up with the idea of a website business,

which is aimed at small businesses.

And we realised we would be able to spend much more time together.

We could work from home.

It's not so pressured and not so regulated,

and that's what we aim to do in the future.

Meanwhile, with the British weather being what it is and Selsey being situated where it is,

only time will tell if the residents of this seaside town will ever win the war with the sea.

You never know when Britain's unpredictable weather will strike again

and, as you've seen, when it does, it can be pretty ruthless.

But life does go on, so join us next time for more amazing stories on Living Dangerously.

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