UK demolition contractors stand down as major storm peters out.
“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good” might be a cliché but, for the demolition fraternity, it certainly carries a fair degree of truth.
Of course, it would be wrong to accuse the demolition industry of seeking to profit from a natural disaster. But, it is often the sector that comes to the rescue when buildings and structures are rendered unstable by storm damage.
So it is likely that a good many UK demolition professionals – particularly those stationed along the southern coast of the UK – were sat by the telephone last night and this morning, waiting for emergency calls that never came.
Sure, there are reports of tower crane collapses and scaffolding falling into streets. And, at the time of writing, around 200,000 homes are without power. But the widespread structural damage forecast by the Met Office seemingly didn’t transpire.
In fact, although the traffic system is in chaos down because of felled trees on roads and railway lines, it appears that the UK had overestimated the destructive force of the St Jude storm.
Indeed, if this morning’s straw poll is anything to go by, it seems that the demolition fraternity’s primary involvement in the storm is to be stuck in traffic along with the rest of the UK’s business travellers.
