TENBY fire crews put recent comments that our firefighters were no match for their counterparts further afield into context last Wednesday as high winds and storm conditions ripped through the south of the county.

At one stage the town's two crews attended 15 call-outs in less than six hours - averaging one call every 23 minutes.

The majority of the calls came as gusts of up to 80 miles an hour battered the seaside resort throughout the afternoon and evening, tossing roof slates through the sky like frisbees, bringing down aerials and ripping up trees.

Proposals to withdraw the county's turntable ladders were also shown to be ill-thought-out as gale-force conditions meant freestanding ladders proved useless.

Commenting on a day's work well-done, Tenby station officer Dickie Lewis, said: "It is just something that you have to get done. Luckily, we had the turntable ladder at our disposal. Without that we would have had to close roads.

"The nature of things during high winds means you cannot put normal ladders up. Without the turntable ladder, members of the public would have been put in danger."

As afternoon turned to evening the epicentre of the storm moved from Tenby to nearby Saundersfoot with fallen trees blocking roads and roof slates continuing to come down at great risk to the public.

The crews also secured live electricity cables as falling trees and branches brought down overhead wires.

Narberth crew also had a busy evening as the storm conditions ripped through Robeston Wathen.

They were faced with the strangest call of the day when a report came in that a large trampoline had been picked up by the gales and become lodged on top of a telegraph pole.

AN adventure centre in Freshwater East was stripped of its wooden roof by the gale force winds that wreaked havoc across the county on Wednesday.

At 10.45am gusts reaching 62mph swept into Freshwater Bay Holiday Park, battering the resort and ripping the roof off the Longhouse, much of which landed in a neighbouring field.

Phil Dyer, aged 53, a foreman for Preseli Construction, was working in the area at the time:

"It was unbelievable, there was an incredible crack, like thunder, and I turned around to see the wind completely roll the roof up.

"It was amazing to see the top of a building just blown away like that.

"Although we are not involved with the building we were able to assist the firemen who did a fantastic job in making the building safe," he said.

Firefighters arrived to find most of the roof bare and tried in vain to keep the remaining panels secure with ropes.

The three-and-a-half-hour struggle to make the area safe ended when the fire crews managed to get tarpaulin over the roof and made the ground debris safe.

THE Isle of Inishmore ferry, which sails from Pembroke Dock to Rosslare, was delayed by 13.5 hours, because of the adverse weather conditions on Wednesday.

The Irish Ferries' vessel, with 260 passengers and 72 crew on board, anchored for the duration of the storm just outside the Milford Haven waterway, as the captain felt it would be unsafe to attempt to dock.

"The skipper decided not to take any chances," said Delfryn Davies, of Irish Ferries. "The channel itself is quite deep but there are parts of the Haven which are rather shallow."

"When the ferry is coming into berth, it has to move quite slowly and that is the time when the skipper does not have quite so much control over the ship.

If it had been caught in a strong gust it could have been driven onto one of the sandbanks." When the ferry eventually reached port, the captain took the decision not to set back to sea and two sailings were missed, as there was no guarantee the conditions would allow entry into Rosslare harbour.

The Stena Line ferry Stena Europe missed one sailing owing to gale force winds last week.

Carl Milne, route marketing manager, said: "We had trouble getting the ferry into Rosslare harbour on Wednesday night but did manage to dock, although later than expected. The ferry missed one round trip - the 3.15am on Thursday from Fishguard and the 9am from Rosslare."

With south Pembrokeshire bearing the brunt of the gale force winds on Wednesday afternoon, county council staff were kept busy dealing with fallen trees and flooding.

Seventeen trees were blown down and had to be cleared, Carew tidal bridge was flooded as was Wallaston Cross. But the worst flooding was at Upper Lamphey Road, Pembroke, where drainage work is in progress.

Sandbags were delivered to Amroth, which was on flood alert and a close eye as kept on a number of rivers, including the Ritec at Tenby.

In mid and north of the county there were only three call-outs. One was for a lorry and JCB to be sent down to Dale and Gelliswick to clear the roads.

A JCB was also required at Rhoseferry Road to assist with the removal of a large tree and there was flooding on the A40 at Wolfscastle.