‘It’s getting wild out there’ Cornish batten down the hatches as Storm Goretti strikes

Porthleven’s seafront streets are emptying as Storm Goretti pounds the Cornish coast but one pub’s open mic night must go on.

The Met Office has issuing a rare red warning amid fears of extreme and dangerous weather with emergency alerts pinging on locals phones.

The warning, which includes Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, is in place from 4pm until 11pm.

But one place that is still open for locals brave enough to face the wind is The Mussel Shoal, a trusty brewery in Port Severn.

Kelvin Bacc, the owner, told Metro: ‘I mean we’re quite used to storms down in Port Severn because we’re the only westerly facing harbour in the whole of the UK.

‘So I don’t think this has affected us as much as it has in other places. It is really howling. But because we’re in the shipyard it’s not been too bad.

‘We’re just setting up for open mic night and you can hear it rattling around in the roof.

‘The storm has really, really, got a hold of Cornwall, that’s for sure.’

Only 30 minutes after opening today, the brewery has about 25 customers who have pushed through the storm to enjoy some alcohol.

Primary School teacher James Kitto, 57, told Metro he was watching massive waves crash into the Port in Porthleven in Cornwall from a ‘safe distance’.

He said: ‘It’s getting pretty wild out there.

‘All the Cornwall schools were closed early today, and the children and staff were sent home. The kids were all excited to leave early but by about 4pm, it was certainly making its presence known here.

‘I went out about 4.30pm and the size of the waves coming in towards the port, they were huge, absolutely huge.

‘I didn’t get the warning through on my phone and I had family and friends calling me not take and any risks, which I won’t.’

Asked how he will be spending the evening, he said: ‘I am going to bunker down indoors. The wind is just getting stronger and stronger. I just had to tie down my wheelie bin. Being killed by a council wheelie bin has to be up there as one of the worst ways to die.

Opening his front door to the whistling wind, he urged others: ‘Stay indoors stay safe you never know what the wind can do, it could pull tiles down from roofs and get really dangerous out there. It is wild.’

He added: ‘It is as bad as I have seen for years.  We had one enormous storm where the baulks – the timber beams that protect the inner harbor were broken like matchsticks. We are famous for our storms round here.’

The owner of The Ship Inn told Metro: ‘It’s real bad, there have been reports of the waves being a hundred foot offshore.

‘We’ve all had to close down. The staff have all had to go home.

‘The locals have had to lock-in and we can’t take any money because the locals said that the phone masts are down.’

Pubs like The Ship Inn are in the dark, unsure of how when they can reopen.

Director of The Square at Portleven restaurant is optimistic that they will be able to reopen tomorrow, weather allowing.

He told Metro: ‘We’ve shut the restaurant down.

‘It’s really windy, all the tables and chairs in front of the restaurant had blown away so we made the call to shut the restaurant.

‘We’ve sent staff home. We are just trying to be safe because of the winds.

‘We are on standby for tomorrow but we don’t know where we stand.’

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