PEOPLE from across Cornwall were woken in the early hours of Saturday morning to the harrowing rumbles of thunder and bright white flashing of lightning, brought by a vast storm to start the bank holiday weekend.

For those who weren’t clasping the duvet covers in fear, many braved the weather and went out to film, photograph or gaze at the magnificent storm. However, although an amazing sight, the storm also caused some problems in the Post area.

In Pipers Pool, firefighters from Launceston, Bodmin and Lostwithiel attended two stables that had been hit by lightning. On arrival, the stables were alight, and firefighters used hose reels and jets to extinguish the blaze.

Similarly, firefighters from Bude, Callington, Looe, Delabole and Launceston were all paged to attend incidents during the early hours of May 27 at both businesses and properties that had been struck by lightning, which had caused alarms to activate and, in some cases, led to small fires.

One property at Kings Hill in Bude was struck by lightning, and Bude Community Fire Station later reported on their Facebook page that although the property had taken a direct hit, there was no sign of fire, using the hashtag #staysafe.

In Camelford, the storms on Friday, leading into Saturday, had affected the power supply of Lowermoor Water Treatment Works, which temporarily impacted its ability to supply water. Around 500 customers’ water supplies were disrupted as a result.

Western Power restored power to the works at 3.30pm on Saturday, and water supplies were progressively restored later that evening.

Teams from South West Water kept customers updated via text message, social media and online, with bowsers deployed and water deliveries made to customers on the priority services register.

A spokesperson from South West Water said: “On Sunday, due to demand on the network, some customers may have experienced a reduction in water pressure. Some customers may also have experienced a temporary discolouration of water, which could be resolved by running the kitchen cold tap until clear.

“We apologise for the inconvenience and thank customers for their understanding.”

Despite the carnage the storm had caused, many local people also took the opportunity to capture the experience through film and photography.

Chris Small, from Ocean and Earth Photography in Bude, braved the weather and ventured out to the beach to take some pictures. He started at the breakwater, moving on to middle beach, where he described the scene as something out of the ‘war of the worlds’.

However, having taken some amazing pictures, but getting caught up in the chaos, Chris said: “There’s not many things that will get me out of bed and out of the house in the early hours of the morning. My storm alerts ringing from the bedside table will make me jump up pretty quickly though.”

He said that his camera bag is always out at the ready, and he can manage to get to the coast within ten minutes of the storm alerts waking him up.

He continued: “And it’s paid off time and time again. From one of the brightest aurora displays on record to highly active lightning storms, I’ll happily chase them down and worry about sleep another day.

“I love shooting dramatic seascapes, and they don’t get much more dramatic than including lightning strikes within the photograph.”

However, his time spent on the beach soon ‘got a little out of hand’. Having arrived at the coast, Chris soon began snapping the pictures of the storm, the thunderous bolts darting all around him.

He said: “Within 20 minutes, I knew I was in trouble. The atmosphere was far more unstable than predicted and over 150 lightning strikes per minute were pummeling the coast all around me relentlessly for hours. As my hair stood on end, I abandoned the camera equipment to a preset timelapse and ran for cover within the nearest cliffs!

“I always try to take whatever care I can whilst out photographing the coast, but I had got caught up in the joy of photographing the storm and stupidly found myself on a beach surrounded by lightning crashing as near as 50 metres away.

“The next day brought reports of destruction across all of Cornwall, confirming that I was both stupid and lucky. From here on I’ll be taking a much more cautious approach to my storm chasing.”