It was the storm Hembsy had braced itself for.
And although its crumbling coastline survived Storm Babet’s first overnight onslaught, locals knew the worst was yet to come over the weekend.
On Friday, their homes, which are perilously perched on the dune edge, crept ever closer to the North Sea.
Tidal surges fuelled by gale-force winds of 50mph battered the coastline over the weekend, as Strom Babet swept through the region.
Around four metres of the coastline was claimed by the sea on the north side of Hemsby Gap, with thousands of tonnes of sand from the beach being lost to high tides.
READ MORE: Thirty years of Hemsby's eroding coastline in pictures
Hemsby independent lifeboat coxswain Daniel Hurd, who patrolled the beach during the worst of the storm, said it’s no longer a matter of if but when the Beach Road lifeboat station will have to be relocated.
“One more storm with a north-easterly wind could finish us,” Mr Hurd said.
“The storm and high tides claimed three to four metres of the dunes and thousands and thousands of tonnes of sand over the weekend.
“We’re still losing the dune face and we fear it will get to the car park at the lifeboat station if we get another storm like it.
“We’re really concerned.”
The volunteer lifeboat crew had to desperately rebuild the sand slipway used to get the boat from the station to the sea as high tides threatened to wash it away.
The storm came in the same week that Hemsby found out it would not receive government funding for sea defences to protect the village.
The plans hoped for 0.8 miles (1.3km) of rock berm, at a cost of £15m – but a joint statement from Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Coastal Partnership East (the council’s coastal management team), Great Yarmouth MP Sir Brandon Lewis, and Norfolk County Council said the cost would be “significantly higher”.
The statement also said that the village did not have enough threatened homes to warrant the funding.
READ MORE: Hemsby refused government funding for sea defences
Ian Brennan, treasurer and former chairman of campaign group ‘Save Hemsby Coastline’ (SHC), said the villagers feel “abandoned” by the government.
“It was devastating news and there’s a lot of anger and sadness in the village,” Mr Brennan said.
“Three years ago a study said 92 homes and several businesses will be lost in the next 25 years if we do nothing.
“In the three years since, six homes have been lost and another five are hanging by a thread.”
Lorna Bevan, a trustee of SHC and who owns The Lacon Arms pub in Sea View Road, had said the funding decision was "utterly disrespectful" to locals.
Resident Kevin Jordan, 70, who has lived in his home on the Marrams for 14 years, said he lives in fear of his house being next.
The Marrams is one of Hemsby’s most vulnerable sections of coastline – with the boundary of Mr Jordan’s home sitting precariously just five metres from the sea.
He had said his house shakes when the sea crashes against the dunes and was anxious about the whole erosion situation.
Hemsby also lost several metres of its coastline over the previous weekend before the storm.
Earlier this year, the beach entrance by Hemsby Gap was closed due to erosion, which saw a halt in offshore call-outs for the independent lifeboat, a home being moved away from the cliff edge and several homes demolished.
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