Storm Babet destroys £50,000 beach huts in pretty seaside town

Storm Babet levelled beach huts in a small Devon town, pictures have shown, during the first few days of the autumn onslaught.

Photos taken by locals in Teignmouth, a town of just over 15,000 people on the Devonshire coast, show Babet’s devastation after it made landfall on Wednesday, October 18.

The storm brought 15-foot waves and washed four feet of sea foam onto the coast, leading the Environment Agency to issue a flood warning for the region.

The aftermath is just as dramatic, locals have shown, as Babet’s winds have ripped beach huts from their foundations.

Before and after pictures posted on social media show the shattered remains of one hut on the Teignmouth shore.

READ MORE: Storm Babet’s devastation in pictures as three die and major incident declared

Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, meteorologist Ant Veal followed the storm as it hit the UK coast.

He captured grey skies and mists descending on Teignmouth beach in front of a row of beach huts.

In one picture, the huts stand firmly together on the shore, while in another, a green building is missing.

People can only see the concrete foundations, with its neighbouring buildings looking destabilised.

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The second photo shows one of the stilted homes standing shakily on the pebbled beach, with some of its back posts missing.

While Mr Veal documented the destruction, he didn’t estimate how much the damage may have cost the beach hut’s owners.

But a look at online property listings suggests the storm may have destroyed a building worth more than £50,000. One listing uploaded to property site The Move Market advertised a collection of five beach huts for nearly £300,000.

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Prospective buyers could snap up the five on Teignmouth Beach for £279,000, suggesting they are worth a five-figure sum alone.

While they aren’t listed individually, this would give each beach hut an approximate value of £55,800.

Babet has since moved on from Devon but remains a threat in the UK, with the Met Office expecting the storm’s effects to last into the weekend.

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