Low-lying Torcross receives a battering from gale force winds and high waves.

A winter storm combined with a high tide and easterly winds caused extensive damage to the houses at Torcross and Beesands on 4 January 1979. Parts of the shingle beach and the sea wall were also washed away. Coastal erosion is not new to this part of Devon where in 1917 the entire village of (South) Hallsands was washed away except for one house, the ruins of which serve as a permanent reminder of where the old fishing village once stood.

The A379 is the circuitous partly coastal route from Exeter to Plymouth in Devon and rather like Brunel's Victorian railway at Dawlish Warren hugs the coast on and off. Between Torcross and Slapton the road is built on a coastal bar or sand spit with Slapton Sands on the beach side and Slapton Ley Nature Reserve on the inland side. The road has also been occasionally damaged by winter storms. Strete Sands, Torcross Sands and Pilchard Cove also make up this stretch of shingle beaches which are prone to coastal erosion.