Love wasn't in the air nearly eight years ago on Valentine's Day - a terrifying hurricane-force storm was.

But the storm, which decimated the coastline, didn't come entirely as a surprise. February 2014 had seen some terrible weather on the Dorset coast in the build-up to the storm.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Dorset prepared for yet more stormy weather as the county counted the cost of record rainfall.

It had just seen the wettest January in parts of the county since records began and there was no sign of a let up in the miserable conditions with flood warnings issued for the area.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Huge waves battered the coast of Weymouth and Portland and sirens sounded at Chiswell as relentless waves washed over the top of Chesil Beach, leaving tons of pebbles and debris littering many of the streets.

Residents in Weymouth and Portland said it was the worst they had seen it in 30 years.

There were also dramatic scenes on Weymouth seafront as the waves came crashing towards the promenade.

Preston Beach Road and Portland Beach Road were closed.

On the A35, a lorry was blown over in fierce winds near Askerswell and police advised drivers of high-sided vehicles to stay away from the area. Police received reports of 50 fallen trees across the county by 10.30am including one which crashed down on to the Rodwell Trail in Weymouth.

West Bay and Lyme harbours were among the areas in Dorset issued with severe flood warnings for high tide in Lyme Regis beach huts were battered, chalets ruined and an ice cream parlour was flooded by pebbles.

The road into West Bay was closed by a huge fallen tree after it crashed across the road at the Haddon House Hotel overnight.

Wednesday February 12, 2014

Residents are warned to batten down the hatches and The Heights Hotel on Portland was on standby to look after people in case they needed to evacuate.

Waves of up to ten metres high were predicted.

Two people diced with death as they played near huge waves at high tide on Portland.

The pair were spotted close to the breaking waves on Chesil Beach.

They were seen to walk down to close to where the waves were breaking.

Friday February 14 and Saturday February 15, 2014

The destructive Valentine’s Day storm which continued into Saturday caused chaos whipping roofs from homes, triggered landslides, plunged thousands of homes into darkness, toppled over lorries and uprooted scores of trees as well as tearing down power cables.

Winds of up to 80mph and waves more than 30ft high pounded coastal areas, putting lives in danger.

Emergency services, council staff and military personnel alerted residents whose properties were under threat, as well as providing transport and medical help.

Residents evacuated from West Bay came back to find tidal flooding and violent winds had damaged properties.

Flood sirens blared out on Friday night and again on Saturday at Chiswell on Portland as winds raged and created gigantic waves, throwing huge rocks on to the seafront. A set of stairs leading to the beach was battered ‘like a sledgehammer,’ said one onlooker.

The Cove House Inn had to be evacuated and police blocked anyone from going on to the seafront.

Portland Beach Road was under four feet of water from flooding at Hamm Beach. The road’s closure overnight trapped people either side of the causeway for several hours. Refuge centres were set up, including impromptu shelters in Weymouth. The beach road opened for a couple of hours early on Saturday but closed again as waves rose at high tide.

The A35 between Dorchester and Bridport was also closed due to fallen trees.

Parts of Weymouth harbourside around the Town Bridge and Commercial Road were under water. Preston Beach took a pounding but despite some spray overtopping, flood defences held firm and rock armour helped reduce risk of flooding, said the Environment Agency.

Aftermath

Dorset County Council said they had 259 reports of flooding inside people's homes.

The authority said the average cost of restoring a flood-hit three bedroomed house to its former condition stood at £30,000.

Insurers of Dorset homes were hit with a £7.7m bill.

The county council said that together with government funding £11m was spent repairing roads damaged by the prolonged bad weather and making improvements to drainage in flood-prone areas of Dorset following the chaos.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and West Dorset District Council worked with the Environment Agency to repair coastal defences.

A total of £1million was spent at Chesil Beach repairing the coastal defences including the gabions – large metal boxes containing pebbles – on the beach and reshaping the beach shingle.

In West Dorset, the banks of the river at Freshwater Beach, Burton Bradstock were reinforced with rock armour to prevent the force of incoming waves eroding them.