It is six months since the main road into the village of Torcross, in South Devon, collapsed after a series of storms caused extensive damage to the community's sea defences.
Residents are still coming to terms with the devastation and isolation caused by the storms, and awaiting the results of a £20million investment that will see huge quantities of rock placed on the beach at Slapton Sands to bolster those defences.
However, while discussions around that continue, scientists have suggested that Torcross could represent an early warning sign - a proverbial canary in the coal mine for the fate that other coastal communities around the UK could face in the future.
In a new study, they say the winter storms of early 2026 - including the named Atlantic storms Goretti, Ingrid, and Chandra - have highlighted the continuing vulnerability of the country's coastlines and its communities.
And they say the repeated damage to the village of Torcross, and the A379 that runs along part of Start Bay, illustrates a broader national cycle of escalating coastal risk despite decades of scientific understanding and strategic planning.
The article is published in the Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures journal, and was written by experts from the University of Plymouth and the University of Southampton.
Its lead author
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"> Professor Gerd Masselink, Professor of Coastal Geomorphology in Plymouth, has been examining the increasing impacts of extreme storms on Slapton Sands - and other parts of the South West coastline - for more than 20 years.
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