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britains worst weather disasters s01e02
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00:00:01it started with the noise and it was out of nowhere absolutely terrifying from deadly gales
00:00:11and biblical flash floods it was like something out of apocalypse to searing temperatures and
00:00:18arctic blizzards you had cars buried there were signs buried nothing could move our weather has
00:00:27destroyed homes the front of the house was literally like blown out and taken lives they took me one way
00:00:36and they took my sister towards the morgue this is the story of six of the most devastating weather
00:00:45events mother nature has ever thrown at the UK railway shut the airport's shut it was just
00:00:52total devastation just a freak event which ended in horror told by those who lived through it it
00:01:02still has an impact on me to this day and those who battled bravely to save lives I've been to
00:01:08terrorist incidents and bomb blasts and it looked like that it was probably as scary as serving
00:01:14a northern island fighting to survive Britain's most deadly weather in July 2022 a dome of high
00:01:34pressure sat over the UK huge parts of the country were basking in unseasonably warm temperatures above
00:01:4125 degrees on the 19th of July it peaked at 40.3 degrees Celsius a new record UK has never
00:01:50reached 40
00:01:51degrees Celsius prior to then the highest temperature would ever had was 38.7 degrees we didn't just break
00:01:57this record we smashed it by over one and a half degrees so the exceptionally hot weather of 2022 was
00:02:04associated with a heat dome an area of high pressure sitting across the UK many enjoyed the heat but it
00:02:11soon
00:02:12began to have devastating consequences it wasn't warm weather the people were enjoying this is an extreme
00:02:18weather event like a storm or a hurricane across London's boroughs temperatures had hit 20 degrees for 20
00:02:24straight days drying the air and parching the ground particularly around East London in the Essex borders it became the
00:02:33busiest day since World War two for the London fire brigade by 20 past 9 on the morning of the
00:02:4119th of July it was
00:02:42already a sweltering 33 degrees in London I had a funeral to take I remember standing there just sweat dripping
00:02:56down my
00:02:57back even though you know our churches tend to remain cool it had gone past that because it had been
00:03:02so warm for so long I was working my office doing
00:03:07my day job very early on it was clear that on that day that it was going to be a
00:03:12very busy day for the London fire brigade there hadn't been a drop of rain in London for nearly two
00:03:18weeks
00:03:19so not only was it very hot it was very dry as well so these conditions are perfect for fires
00:03:26to spread at 934 999 calls flooded the London fire brigade the grasslands in East London were aflame
00:03:35there was lots of information coming over the radio it was getting busier and busier in just two and a
00:03:44half hours LFB received as many 999 calls as they normally
00:03:49do in 24 fires were springing up all across London including Elise Peterson's home parish two miles from where she
00:03:57was conducting the funeral
00:03:58standing outside the crematorium and I could see smoke on the horizon but I had no idea where it was
00:04:06my friends who are waiting for me said we've received phone call and Wennington is on fire
00:04:14at six minutes past one fire crews were dispatched to Wennington on the far fringes of East London
00:04:21following reports of people stuck in a burning building the initial call was to a house fire
00:04:28by the time I had arrived and I was in charge it was much more than just a house fire
00:04:33we knew it
00:04:35was pretty bad we got in the car and tried to come down to Wennington just see black smoke billowing
00:04:44out
00:04:44of the village as Joe reached the original source of the fire the air temperature was already higher than
00:04:51it had ever been in London 39 degrees and getting hotter it was 40 degrees hate there was two houses
00:04:58alight so we had the radiated heat from them houses as well as the surrounding heat from the temperatures
00:05:04of that day the prolonged heat of the past month meant Wennington was in a particularly vulnerable position
00:05:14we are in the borough of Havering so technically we're part of London but a lot of people in the
00:05:20village would argue that and say no we're part of Essex there is a lot of grassland around us so
00:05:28there
00:05:28was a lot of fuel for the fire the driest July since 1935 created thirsty air which had sucked all
00:05:37the
00:05:37water from the vegetation the bone-dry grass that surrounded the semi-rural part of London meant fires
00:05:44could rapidly spread it spread very very quickly to the marshland as well as all the way along
00:05:50Wennington Road within 40 minutes Joe had requested 15 fire engines to attend more than 100 firefighters
00:06:00fought the blaze as it threatened homes possessions and human life it all moved so quickly people you
00:06:09know we're trying to figure out what do I pack up what do I take with me really lives were
00:06:13in danger
00:06:28this was properties cars outbuildings grassland marshland this was a village alight on the 19th of July
00:06:392022 extreme temperatures of around 40 degrees ignited parched land in the London borough of Havering
00:06:47and fire had spread to a row of houses 15 fire engines and 100 fire officers battled to contain
00:06:54the inferno residents were knocking on one another's doors getting one another out of the village doing
00:07:01whatever it took people were escaping in what they had a lot of disbelief disorientation just not really
00:07:12understanding what was going on two hours after the fire started it had traveled 200 meters through the
00:07:19village destroying half a dozen homes and covering nearby fields villages had to find shelter wherever
00:07:24they could they came down and took refuge here in the church thinking it would be a safe place I
00:07:31kept
00:07:32finding wet tea towels and it took me a moment to realize that people have been using those as masks
00:07:36to
00:07:37you know get through the smoke I would be looking at houses and vehicles that an hour later would be
00:07:46completely burnt I joined the London fire brigade to save people to save property to put fires out and on
00:07:56that day there were properties that we weren't going to be able to save at 12 minutes past three in
00:08:03the
00:08:04afternoon our peak temperature came 40.3 degrees Celsius at Coningsby in Lincolnshire London was just 0.1
00:08:14degrees behind it was now 16 degrees hotter than average we're trained to respond and operate in
00:08:23high temperatures and extreme temperatures but they are generally for shorter spaces of time what we
00:08:31experienced on the 19th of July was a protracted exposure seven members of the public were treated for
00:08:40heat exhaustion it was vital Joe stopped his crews from overheating we very quickly decided to allow
00:08:48people to not wear their tunics there were garden hoses that members of the public had left out in
00:08:56their front gardens for us to be able to cool ourselves down and to try and bring down your core
00:09:02body
00:09:04temperature Wennington was just one of 106 fires across the capital during the record-breaking heat of
00:09:11the 19th of July 26 were big enough to require at least four fire engines to fight as many as
00:09:1823 injuries
00:09:19were reported the London fire brigade said it was their busiest day they'd had since the second world war
00:09:25fires also broke out in Dorset Hampshire and Norfolk major incidents were declared by fire services in
00:09:33Yorkshire and Leicestershire as temperature records were smashed across the UK across the country 430
00:09:40people died from the heat Scotland had their record temperatures and some places broke their records
00:09:45by over six degrees Celsius but it was so hot that it was melting the tarmac on roads for the
00:09:52first time
00:09:53ever we issued a red extreme heat warning across the UK more than 800 wildfires were recorded in a single
00:10:01day
00:10:03after a grueling 12 and a half hours the fire in Wennington was under control
00:10:0940 hectares of grassland 14 houses 12 stables five cars and six garages were completely destroyed 88
00:10:18properties were evacuated I was at that incident up to in and around midnight I was very tired physically
00:10:28tired mentally tired the Wennington fires are one of them incidents that I'm probably going to remember
00:10:35for the rest of my career because you know I hope that I don't go to another incident of or
00:10:44fire of that scale
00:10:58the next day I was able to walk through the village with people it was just shocking and overwhelming to
00:11:06see
00:11:10and I'd said yeah that house is gone and walked down a little bit further that house is gone as
00:11:16well
00:11:18the summer of 2022 was the hottest in history in England it saw almost 25 000 wildfires between June
00:11:26and August four times the number of the previous year in total 2985 deaths were attributed to the heat of
00:11:35the summer of 2022 remarkably no one in Wennington was killed there was a lot of relief the next day
00:11:44that there had been no loss of life and you know we gave thanks for that the devastation that it
00:11:52caused
00:11:52you can't help not just as a fire officer but as a human being feeling the impact that that is
00:12:00going
00:12:00to have on the local communities in the pictures and the overall scale of the devastation in the
00:12:09aftermath you can't help but look at that and just start to really appreciate the task that we had on
00:12:17that day 17 houses suffered extensive fire damage most destroyed completely but despite being in the center of
00:12:26the fire miraculously elise's church survived the fire burned all the way around the church but did not
00:12:33touch the walls of the church i'm glad that the church survived but how do i speak to people who've
00:12:41lost everything in their homes you know definitely has changed the village everyone even if they were able
00:12:51to return to their homes experienced some level of trauma but obviously for those who lost everything
00:12:58it's much more dramatic we never thought we would be saying 40 degrees celsius that was a climate change
00:13:04projection of 2050 what was once impossible is now not only possible but becoming more likely
00:13:11and that is what is scary
00:13:14the summer of 2022 was eye opening for us within the london fire brigade if you were to ask me
00:13:21that
00:13:22you know in 2022 you know we could arguably say it might have been a freak event i think
00:13:26in reality i would say no it's not a freak event it is more becoming more and more likely
00:13:33we are going to see more and more wildfires the devastation that that brings is huge
00:13:42we are going to see more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
00:13:46but 15 years earlier 2007 saw one of the wettest summers on record
00:13:54it started raining in may and barely stopped for three months
00:14:01the jet stream is a really fast ribbon of wind that moves in the upper atmosphere and it controls
00:14:08lots of the weather that we get here in the uk in summer we expect the jet stream to be
00:14:12quite high
00:14:13up towards iceland and that brings nice warm weather over the uk but in 2007 we were stuck on the
00:14:20wrong
00:14:20side of it it was sat really far south allowing a succession of low pressure systems to move in it
00:14:26didn't move we then got low pressure after low pressure storm after storm over 10 weeks more than 10
00:14:33inches of rain fell on the west midlands two and a half times as much as usual the scene was
00:14:39set for
00:14:40deadly flooding it just kept raining which meant all of those little gaps in the soil just got full
00:14:47and there was nowhere for the water to go and everything is spilling onto the surface but more rain was
00:14:55forecast tally giampa was commander at gloucester fire station right in the crosshairs of the coming storm
00:15:04i received a phone call from a local reporter he said we hear that there's going to be three to
00:15:09four inches of rain coming down tomorrow doesn't sound much but that's about two months worth of rain
00:15:17on ground which is completely saturated we had this moist warm air coming up from france
00:15:25and it just got stuck over the uk which brought a lot of rainfall right in the firing line of
00:15:31this
00:15:31weather was worcestershire and gloucestershire it's the perfect storm isn't it the perfect scenario for
00:15:38major flooding there had been around 30 centimeters of rain over evesham since may the river avon was
00:15:49nearly five meters higher than usual this picturesque town of evesham in worcestershire has effectively been
00:15:56cut off from its neighbors it had broken its banks and was pouring into villages and homes
00:16:01my first call out of the day to an actual rescue
00:16:07was an elderly couple both stuck in their house wheelchair bound we just saw just a massive wall
00:16:14of water all the way down the road you couldn't have walked down there you couldn't took a fire
00:16:19engine down there the water was flowing just too fast so gone to the boat then went down to the
00:16:26house
00:16:27carried the two people out as we're about to pull away remember a nova voxel nova lifting up off the
00:16:35floor it's really scary this water if you go into it that's it hereford and worcester fire and rescue
00:16:43received more than 2 000 emergency calls in 27 hours around 20 of its annual average the radio on the
00:16:51fire engine was continually going fire control was just fielding calls it just didn't stop
00:17:05vanya atkins was at home in sedgeburgh right in the center of the deluge the devastating effect
00:17:11of the rain was rapidly becoming clear i was 34 weeks pregnant at the time
00:17:18i could see it was raining and and then you could see surface water in the road
00:17:24then it was getting a bit more and you're thinking okay i could see neighbors getting sandbags out
00:17:31i'm thinking okay this is quite serious now the rain kept coming on a biblical scale
00:17:38more than a centimeter of rain fell every hour for six straight hours it was a one in a thousand
00:17:44year
00:17:45deluge roads were almost impossible at that stage we are talking about roads that shouldn't flood
00:17:54dual carriageways trunk roads motorways on the 20th of july rain stations across the region smashed
00:18:01rainfall records one recorded a staggering 147 millimeters or nearly six inches of rain in a single
00:18:08day as much as it normally received in more than two months we had train lines blocked we had water
00:18:15everywhere across the fields across people's homes of course and the rivers just didn't go down
00:18:23i went into the utility room and thinking oh it's a bit spongy and before i know it water was
00:18:30coming
00:18:30through the floor i think within about two minutes it was actually coming in the front of the house
00:18:38vania grabbed whatever precious items she could and rushed her 19-month-old son and some food upstairs
00:18:44it was just in time as floodwaters barreled towards her house it was like a wave of water coming down
00:18:51the
00:18:51main road before you know it i think my downstairs was about five six foot underwater
00:19:01and i'm thinking god 34 weeks pregnant you know what do you do and there's no way out now
00:19:13steve rushed to sedgeborough as the scale of the disaster became clear the radio message come to us
00:19:20multiple risk to life in the sedgeborough area multiple rescues required
00:19:24the scene that greeted him was like something from a hollywood disaster movie i've not seen anything
00:19:29like it ever the main road was gone it was just water from building to building
00:19:40there was no gardens you couldn't see cars you couldn't see any of the road furniture 30 mile an hour
00:19:47signs stopped signs they were all gone i just remember a white van being in the middle of the
00:19:54road and the driver got out and tried to get onto the roof and this van was bobbing around like
00:20:01a toy car
00:20:03the water was literally just underneath the ledge of people's bedroom windows
00:20:11so you're looking at eight or nine foot
00:20:13we went over a stop sign if i believe it was in our boat caught it with the engine we
00:20:17could feel
00:20:18it scraping over the top of cars as well heard all the helicopters overhead and sirens you could hear
00:20:26all these sirens going off i just remember my heart beating really quickly i'm thinking you know you
00:20:32think you're calm but you're not actually calm so your heart's going it's racing
00:20:38what's that they're thinking oh god what if i go into labor now her being heavily pregnant
00:20:42was a massive priority wouldn't rescue but two lives isn't it i think they thought you know they need
00:20:49to get me out
00:21:04on the 20th of july 2007 more than two months of rain fell on the west midlands in a single
00:21:10day
00:21:1134 week pregnant vanya atkins was trapped in her house by nine feet of flood water
00:21:17emergency workers were desperate to evacuate her she was in the front bedroom window on the second
00:21:22floor and the water was just under her bedroom window raf were there it's raining it's really
00:21:31cold it's getting quite dark i didn't see the helicopter above me i could hear them but i couldn't
00:21:38actually see them she'd lifted herself up into the windowsill the boat was there before and then
00:21:45the helicopter was above then my little boy start crying and he was starting to get scared and you
00:21:52know mummy mummy mummy and she was sort of half out within a minute or so of us getting there
00:22:01a winchman
00:22:01came down this man put this harness around me and i thought oh it's because it's going to get me
00:22:07into
00:22:07the boat the next i remember is i was about 100 150 feet up in the air
00:22:16i'm stood on the roof looking at a helicopter winching someone away
00:22:22yeah something you don't see every day
00:22:27and it was when they got me in the helicopter you're literally in a daze
00:22:34at this point your heart's going so fast it's literally and you can't take a breath
00:22:41by the way to the city of mine skater
00:22:51with vanya on her way to hospital fire crews quickly turned their attention to others in immediate risk
00:22:57of losing their lives it was massively intense it was instant to instant to incident
00:23:08we came in at eight o'clock in the morning i went home at half nine the following day
00:23:13we came into station once during the night to change into dry clothes
00:23:18a couple of cups of coffee and off we went again
00:23:24through the 24-hour period our boat on its own we rescued 20 people plus
00:23:31they took us to the hospital and dropped us off and it was yeah like nothing i've ever seen
00:23:40the helicopter landed in the car park of the hospital that sprayed water around everywhere
00:23:45got into the hospital and it was like chaos
00:23:52there were all these other people not knowing what was happening
00:23:56drenched from the rain they were just trying to allocate people
00:24:00it was literally like something out of apocalypse
00:24:10as the day progressed attention turned to the medieval town of tewkesbury
00:24:15situated where the rivers seven and avon meet tewkesbury became the the place of greatest
00:24:20danger by the friday evening
00:24:25you've got two big rivers meeting there
00:24:31when we have two rivers meeting you kind of get this double surge of water coming together
00:24:36and spilling out onto the floodplain
00:24:40what we're dealing with is high flowing water so torrents of water
00:24:46passing through tewkesbury where where the river has burst its banks
00:24:51powerful currents that would simply sweep people away
00:24:55the devastating torrents of water in tewkesbury claimed the life of mitchell taylor
00:25:01caught in flood water as he returned home that evening
00:25:04we put together a search operation the use of hovercrafts
00:25:09within 10 minutes they radioed a message back to me to say that they'd found someone
00:25:16three people died in gloucestershire and one in worcestershire as a result of the floods in 2007
00:25:23thousands were out of their homes for up to two years
00:25:25when i got back to the house it was a couple of days later it was really shocking
00:25:32upturned cars in the street
00:25:36toys being swept away
00:25:40literally it looked like a war zone
00:25:46the earliest someone got back into the house was i think about six to eight months
00:25:50i was out two years
00:25:52all these houses were ruined absolutely ruined
00:25:57huge huge amounts of damage
00:26:03unlivable you can't live in a house that's been flooded like that
00:26:11across the country over 60 000 homes and businesses were affected by flooding
00:26:16in the summer of 2007
00:26:187 000 people were rescued
00:26:22it was on a scale like we'd never seen before nowhere was unscathed many people lost their
00:26:28property and 13 people died it was truly awful
00:26:33more would have lost their lives if not for the efforts of the emergency services
00:26:38we were very challenged to be honest however we did i think save 20 people's lives
00:26:46we're proud of the part we played as emergency services
00:26:51but we don't want to ever experience that ever again
00:26:54i'd served in the military before and i'd done tours in northern ireland and belfast
00:26:58it was probably as scary as serving in northern ireland yeah
00:27:02i hope it was a freak event i hope it was a one-off
00:27:05i hope that you know i never have to witness that again
00:27:10vania's baby daughter was born healthy a few weeks later
00:27:14this is probably the most dramatic thing that's ever happened to me
00:27:18but i also feel very lucky that i came out of it unscathed
00:27:24you know my daughter was born perfectly healthy
00:27:28the material stuff we replaced it's something i'm not i don't think i'm ever going to forget
00:27:362007 saw devastation come from the sky but just over 50 years earlier it came from the sea
00:27:44in january 1953 a wall of water whipped up by 100 mile per hour winds
00:27:50left a trail of death and destruction as it surged across the east coast of the uk
00:27:55400 people were still reported missing on candy
00:27:58it killed 307 people one of the deadliest natural disasters on record
00:28:16i was living with my mum my dad and my little sister judith
00:28:21judith and i spent most of our time outside playing anyway
00:28:26well we were always together
00:28:29we got on very well
00:28:32she was my best friend and um she was a lovely little thing full of fun
00:28:38and made everybody laugh
00:28:40edna had recently moved to canvey island in essex
00:28:44a popular location for families moving from london after the second world war
00:28:51it was just a little four bedroom shack
00:28:57so the one half had a little sitting room and a kitchen
00:29:01and the other half had two little bedrooms
00:29:05the sea wall would have been about a hundred yards away
00:29:09for edna and her family saturday the 31st of january was a normal evening
00:29:15we'd had our bath we were sitting on the floor in our 90s
00:29:18and dad was playing the banjo he started to cut up newspaper
00:29:26and he made little string people out of it
00:29:29when he said you've got to go to bed we said oh can we do it again tomorrow dad please
00:29:34shortly after midnight the family was awoken by a crash
00:29:38mum was sleeping
00:29:40and as the water came in the chest of drawers was sort of beginning to float
00:29:47and the lamp fell off
00:29:48and bashed on the bottom of the bed
00:29:51and she came running in
00:29:52and we were our mattress was just sliding into the sea
00:29:56nine-year-old rod bishop heard the storm hit from the other side of the island
00:30:01it's about two o'clock in the morning
00:30:03my dad's brother run down the road
00:30:05knocking everybody up
00:30:07because he'd been informed by the firemen who lived opposite him
00:30:10that the seawall had broken
00:30:13as i came out of our gate
00:30:15all i could hear was people's screams
00:30:17coming from the other side of the island
00:30:20canvey island was the final destination
00:30:23for a storm that had ravaged the entire eastern seaboard of britain
00:30:27low pressure system developed over scotland
00:30:30it moved around an arc across the north down the east coast
00:30:35as the center of the system deepened
00:30:37the pressure got lower and lower
00:30:39and the winds just got stronger and stronger
00:30:43we measure low pressure systems depressions
00:30:46in something called millibars
00:30:47this one was particularly low
00:30:51964
00:30:51and that means that the level of the sea gets sucked up
00:30:55a little bit like you're sucking a straw
00:30:58when the pressure drops this low
00:31:00it can cause the sea to rise
00:31:02you know about half a meter up wind will also pile water up against the coast
00:31:07raising the sea level even further
00:31:09these strong winds
00:31:10cause basically like a bulge of water
00:31:13to move down and down and down
00:31:15to cause a huge storm surge
00:31:17right down the east coast of england
00:31:19the surge came at the worst possible time
00:31:22it coincided not just with a high tide
00:31:25but the highest tide of the month
00:31:28a spring tide is when we have the earth the moon and the sun
00:31:32all in a line
00:31:33and that means that gravity is pulling that water
00:31:36onto the shore
00:31:37so on top of that normal tide
00:31:39you've got a lot more water than normal
00:31:42when high tide struck
00:31:43it was a full two meters higher than usual
00:31:46the area impacted was huge
00:31:49160,000 acres
00:31:51all the way from yorkshire
00:31:53right the way down to the thames estuary
00:31:55when it hit canvey island
00:31:57it was more than sea defences could take
00:31:59canvey island dates back to the 17th century
00:32:02and it was created by the dutch
00:32:04much of it is below sea level even now
00:32:07so the dutch built a lot of big sea walls
00:32:09to try and protect it from the raging tides
00:32:12these sea walls were actually generally built of mud
00:32:16but the problem is
00:32:18if particularly high tide that breaches them
00:32:20it can wash away the wall from the other side
00:32:23washed over the top of the wall
00:32:25and it just collapsed
00:32:29the sea wall broke
00:32:31couldn't take this heavy really heavy tide
00:32:35well it's like a tsunami
00:32:39the devastating sea surge came in the early hours of the morning
00:32:42when everyone was asleep in bed
00:32:44it all happened so quickly
00:32:47that no one could warn us
00:32:49that we should try and even get out
00:32:52to go to somebody else's house
00:32:55people in canvey island were not warned about the storm
00:33:00telephone lines in lincolnshire and norfolk had been knocked down
00:33:03warnings were not passed to the counties further south
00:33:06and said it was too late
00:33:09half asleep and with no time to prepare
00:33:12edna and her family were faced with a terrifying wall of freezing seawater
00:33:17rushing into the house
00:33:18her father had to act fast to save his young family from drowning
00:33:21it was a little window
00:33:23and my dad smashed that
00:33:27and he went out backwards
00:33:29like this
00:33:30and over the top of it
00:33:32pulled himself over the top of the roof
00:33:35and then he climbed onto the corrugated iron roof
00:33:39and somehow or other
00:33:40I don't know he must have got tremendous strength that night
00:33:43but he smashed the corrugated iron in with his bare hands
00:33:49and that made us shoot down to where we were
00:33:53so that we could climb up
00:33:55and get on the roof
00:33:58by the time we got there
00:34:00the sea was on the gutters
00:34:02it was a good eight nine feet high
00:34:07the situation was made worse by the very sea defences designed to save them
00:34:13we were in the newlands part of the island which was worst hit than any other part of the island
00:34:20can we had these what they call party sea walls
00:34:23in case an area one area sea wall broke it wouldn't affect the rest of it
00:34:29the sea breached the first wall and then didn't breach the second wall so it just stayed there
00:34:34in a sea wall kept the water where it was
00:34:38that is unfortunately what caused a lot of the people to be really flooded badly
00:34:45there was water all around us just swirling
00:34:49it was really winter cold freezing cold high wind
00:34:54we couldn't see anything except the water
00:34:58with blankets and clothes sodden
00:35:01the freezing night provided just as much danger as the water
00:35:06Judith and I were in our 90s
00:35:08Dad was in his underpants
00:35:10and Mum was in a little cotton dressing gown
00:35:14and we sat on the roof
00:35:16cuddling up together to keep warm
00:35:18that's where we spent the night
00:35:21temperatures were well below average
00:35:23hovering around zero degrees
00:35:26coldest night of the year they said
00:35:28my sister lost consciousness quite soon
00:35:32and I don't think Mum was too long after her
00:35:38Dad was trying to fight to come back
00:35:40and he said keep shouting for help Ed
00:35:43and he said shout shout
00:35:45and I kept sitting up and shouting help help help
00:35:49he said keep it up Ed that's bringing me back
00:35:52he could hear me
00:35:53it seemed to go on forever
00:36:01when the daylight came we could see the enormity of what had happened
00:36:07the water was all round us just swirling and swirling
00:36:11we could see where the sea wall had broken
00:36:14and we saw it go again
00:36:20we saw a man on the other side of the field
00:36:23dive into the sea and go try and swim for it
00:36:26we don't think he survived
00:36:28it was so cold
00:36:31the bungalows on Canvey
00:36:33especially the Newlands area
00:36:35a lot of those were
00:36:37sort of prefabricated type bungalows
00:36:39some of them were washed off of their foundations
00:36:43and it was just a total devastation
00:36:47can't go down
00:36:48the foundations can't go low into the ground
00:36:50because the water table is very high
00:36:52so essentially the cement bases are pretty much sitting on top of the ground
00:36:56and that makes them particularly vulnerable
00:37:01we saw a house like ours come off its concrete base
00:37:06and just move in the water
00:37:09and it was coming right to us
00:37:12and I can remember dad saying
00:37:14we're done for now
00:37:17there was a submerged tree
00:37:20and as the house floated by
00:37:23it hit that tree under the water
00:37:28and it came by us
00:37:29in about six foot away
00:37:31it was really unbelievable
00:37:33that it missed us
00:37:36dad was convinced it would hit us
00:37:38and then we would have been done for
00:37:42eventually
00:37:43somebody came in dinghies
00:37:45to get us off
00:37:47with so many people underwater
00:37:49getting rescue boats to everyone
00:37:51was an almost impossible task
00:37:53we spent 13 hours up there
00:37:59mum and dad and my sister
00:38:01were all unconscious by this time
00:38:03from the cold
00:38:05and two lovely men
00:38:07I suppose they were ambulance men
00:38:09piggybacked us all along the seawall
00:38:11Judith and I
00:38:14were put in their ambulance
00:38:18we were just both taken
00:38:20off to Southend General Hospital
00:38:22and when we got there
00:38:24they took me one way
00:38:25and they took my sister Judith
00:38:27the other way
00:38:28which was apparently towards the morgue
00:38:3558 people lost their lives
00:38:40mainly from the area
00:38:41on the north side of the island
00:38:45one boy
00:38:46the boy at school
00:38:47that I knew
00:38:48perished as well
00:38:50my parents had a greengrocer's shop
00:38:52in the high street
00:38:53my dad was identifying
00:38:55a lot of the people
00:38:56that were drowned
00:38:57or died from hypothermia
00:39:01must have been absolutely horrendous
00:39:06this is a huge death toll
00:39:08as a consequence of the floods
00:39:09the Isle of Death
00:39:11they call Canvey
00:39:14307 people died across the UK
00:39:16this is the biggest natural disaster
00:39:18in the country
00:39:18for the entire 20th century
00:39:20and one of the biggest in the UK
00:39:22throughout all history
00:39:27it was devastating
00:39:28mum was never the same
00:39:33she'd lost a child
00:39:36and I didn't really have much of a childhood after that
00:39:40I did but it wasn't the same
00:39:49it was survivor's guilt I think
00:40:10the North Sea flood
00:40:11was Britain's deadliest weather event
00:40:14of the 20th century
00:40:15but in 1990
00:40:17one of the most intense storms in history
00:40:19hit huge swathes of the UK
00:40:21smack on
00:40:22casualties and chaos
00:40:23were still being discovered
00:40:25many victims stood little chance
00:40:28it took more lives
00:40:29than any other onshore storm
00:40:31for at least a hundred years
00:40:33he was larger than life character
00:40:38very sociable
00:40:39very well thought of
00:40:42he was a very involved dad
00:40:45he would get up very early in the mornings
00:40:48and take me to the swimming training
00:40:50he was just there
00:40:52he was just there
00:40:52for everything that we did
00:40:52he was always there
00:41:01Farham in Hampshire
00:41:02saw record wind gusts
00:41:03of 80 miles per hour
00:41:05just as police inspector
00:41:07John Smith set off to work
00:41:11this storm was actually really well forecast
00:41:13we had some good information coming from ships in the Atlantic
00:41:17who released weather balloons up
00:41:19to take in information about the air pressure
00:41:22as this storm developed
00:41:24it became really very low pressure indeed
00:41:29949 millibars
00:41:30that's extremely low
00:41:32and the centre of that system gets lower and lower in pressure
00:41:36the winds get very very strong
00:41:38this weather system became really very devastating
00:41:41it was a weather bomb
00:41:45my dad was John Smith
00:41:46he was chief inspector
00:41:47at police headquarters in Winchester
00:41:50I was working as a riding instructor at HMS Dryad
00:41:55it was a really windy day
00:41:57so on the morning he'd left work before me
00:42:00he'd made comment that he was going to see
00:42:03if the trees were still standing the way he went to work
00:42:05and we just went off to work
00:42:07as you would normally
00:42:17as we went across to the main part of Dryad
00:42:20it was really hard to walk across the courtyard
00:42:23it wasn't until later that morning
00:42:25that I was asked to go across to the lieutenant commander's office
00:42:31and a friend of the family who was on duty that day came to tell me
00:42:42they came in and just said that John's been killed
00:42:49and I obviously asked what had happened
00:42:55and he just said that a tree had fallen on his car
00:43:00there was a witness that said
00:43:02the speed at which the tree came down was just phenomenal
00:43:06and I just remember the sheer shock and disbelief that it had happened
00:43:15yeah I mean I think about it all the time
00:43:16I you know if I'm driving around and it's windy
00:43:19it's always there
00:43:24that fear that that could happen again
00:43:30the winds continued to build
00:43:33gusts up to 107 miles per hour swept eastwards from the Atlantic
00:43:38hitting highly populated areas in England and Wales head-on
00:43:42in the heart of the day
00:43:45everybody was out going to work and school
00:43:48half a million homes without power
00:43:50three million trees were down
00:43:53roads were impacted
00:43:54there were overturned vehicles and trees blocking them
00:43:57railways shut
00:43:59the airports shut
00:44:00ports shut
00:44:02Wiltshire saw average hourly wind speeds of 47 miles per hour
00:44:07many schools across the county were still in session
00:44:20I joined Grange Infants in 89
00:44:23I was 10 years old
00:44:26literally still trying to settle in and make friends
00:44:29that week it was cursed
00:44:31because we'd had two fire alarms went off
00:44:33you know you just knew something was going to happen
00:44:35you're always waiting for that third event to take place
00:44:39listening to the wind in the classroom
00:44:41it was rattling the windows
00:44:43it was really only the sound that
00:44:44made you think there was anything wrong
00:44:49and then it all changed
00:44:55just after one o'clock about quarter past one
00:44:58I noticed something blowing off the roof
00:45:02when I heard the noise from along the corridors
00:45:06I didn't know what had happened
00:45:09I knew it had been something bad
00:45:12quite how bad it was
00:45:14I didn't know
00:45:17we'd had a teaching assistant that day
00:45:20and we were talking about the weather
00:45:23and she was just going through the Gale Force wind scale
00:45:26it was perhaps around 6 or 7
00:45:28you know by her description
00:45:30and she just explained
00:45:32the Gale Force 10
00:45:33and the roof just peeled off
00:45:37like a tin of sardines
00:45:42it started with the noise
00:45:44and it was out of nowhere
00:45:46absolutely terrifying
00:45:48the roof just picked up and disappeared
00:45:54the only way I can describe it
00:45:56is the sound of a building being torn in two
00:46:02you just heard this almighty bang
00:46:07and then just the wind really
00:46:09the wind just overtook everything
00:46:12the howling was right above you
00:46:14it was quite overwhelming
00:46:18all hell broke loose
00:46:19it felt like being inside a vortex of pain and chaos
00:46:24there was wind everywhere
00:46:26fibreglass from the ceiling
00:46:28being whipped around
00:46:28like you were in a yellow snowstorm
00:46:31it was hitting you in the face
00:46:35children were screaming
00:46:36teachers were screaming
00:46:37it was absolute bedlam
00:46:39and we could hear
00:46:41like just shouting
00:46:42get under the tables
00:46:43get under the tables
00:46:44I could see pupils
00:46:46under tables
00:46:48screaming and crying
00:46:49and not knowing what to do
00:46:53I went back to try and get them
00:46:55and I've been told
00:46:56I got several people
00:46:57out from under the tables
00:46:58and back down the stairs
00:46:59because they were too afraid to move
00:47:04as we exited the classroom
00:47:06it was just the look of horror
00:47:08and shock
00:47:09on people's faces
00:47:11this was so far out of the ordinary
00:47:13that your mind almost couldn't find anything to grasp onto
00:47:17we all needed to get downstairs as quickly as possible
00:47:20as we came out to the landing area
00:47:23I could look across and I could see
00:47:26the other classroom on the end
00:47:28you could see people coming out
00:47:30just covered in rubble
00:47:33the gable end had collapsed
00:47:37as I approached the doors
00:47:39I could see wreckage
00:47:41the classroom
00:47:44just looked at a wreck
00:47:47the first thing I was aware of
00:47:49when I went in
00:47:50the sky
00:47:51and then I saw
00:47:52roof had fallen down
00:47:54and a big pile
00:47:56I remember looking up
00:47:57and seeing the blackboard had gone
00:47:58but there were framed pictures
00:48:01bizarrely
00:48:02still on the wall
00:48:04and it was little elements like that
00:48:05that just stuck in my mind
00:48:06out of all of this whirlpool of madness
00:48:10I was the last person from our class
00:48:13into the hall
00:48:15and just walking into
00:48:18what felt like a scene from a war movie
00:48:23children crying
00:48:24adults crying
00:48:27people just not knowing what to do
00:48:29sat quietly
00:48:30or screaming in a corner
00:48:31it was
00:48:33absolute chaos
00:48:35just had to get our heads down
00:48:36and get out of the classroom
00:48:37as soon as we can
00:48:38how did everybody react?
00:48:40we were all scared
00:48:41at 10 years old
00:48:43all sorts of things run through your mind
00:48:45you don't know what's going to happen next
00:48:47are you safe?
00:48:48the teachers and the students
00:48:50were obviously
00:48:52very concerned
00:48:53frightened even
00:48:54the teachers were that day
00:48:56were absolutely amazing
00:48:57they must have been going through
00:48:58a traumatic experience as well
00:49:00something they don't expect to happen
00:49:02my deputy head
00:49:03who ran the class
00:49:05where the roof came off
00:49:06kept the children very much
00:49:09you know
00:49:09and was really trying to calm them
00:49:12the majority of injuries
00:49:14seemed to be
00:49:15related to the fibreglass
00:49:17that was strewn everywhere
00:49:19I had to go to hospital
00:49:20I had swallowed some
00:49:21and I had throat damage
00:49:22people had it in their eyes
00:49:24the injured children were taken care of
00:49:28and then taken away by ambulance
00:49:30to the hospital for medical attention
00:49:32however one girl did lose her life
00:49:34Emily McDonald
00:49:37sadly
00:49:38sadly
00:49:38a friend of ours
00:49:39Emily
00:49:40lost her life in the accident
00:49:46arguably the burn's day storm
00:49:47saw the most severe gales of the 20th century
00:49:50both for its geographical extent
00:49:52and its intensity combined
00:49:54the death toll of 47 people
00:49:57backs that up
00:50:00it still has an impact on me to this day
00:50:03don't think it's something that ever leaves you
00:50:07this was above all a tragedy
00:50:10it's not an easy thing to forget
00:50:12it's not an easy thing to put behind you
00:50:17something like that impacts your life greatly
00:50:19the only people that understand it
00:50:21are those that have experienced it
00:50:24it was a complete tragedy
00:50:27it was just a freak event
00:50:29which ended in horror
00:50:34certainly wouldn't wish it onto anybody else
00:50:58I woke up that morning and said to George
00:51:00the new baby was about to be born
00:51:03I need to get to hospital
00:51:05we pulled the blinds and
00:51:07oh
00:51:08there was snow everywhere
00:51:11in 1982
00:51:13a devastating winter
00:51:14saw the mercury in the UK
00:51:16dip to its lowest ever point
00:51:18at least 1,000 people died of hypothermia
00:51:23the extraordinary low temperatures
00:51:25accompanied snow
00:51:26that wreaked havoc on communities across the UK
00:51:29we had this area of low pressure
00:51:31coming across the Atlantic
00:51:32and it brought a huge amount of snow
00:51:37on the 7th of January
00:51:38it started to snow on an epic scale
00:51:41in what became known as
00:51:43the big snow
00:51:53I remember going to bed
00:51:55and it was snowing heavy
00:51:57I would say it was about
00:52:00two to three foot of snow
00:52:03it just kept mounting up
00:52:05mounting up
00:52:06and mounting up
00:52:07it was torrential snow
00:52:10the snow fell for 36 hours straight
00:52:13up to a metre settled in parts of Wales
00:52:16by the time it stopped
00:52:18villages like Bedlinog
00:52:20were almost completely snowed under
00:52:25when we woke up in the morning
00:52:27it was covered
00:52:32I opened the front door
00:52:34and it was just another
00:52:36wall of snowy
00:52:40it was cold
00:52:41we're talking
00:52:42minus 2 to minus 4 degrees Celsius
00:52:44and the air was pretty dry
00:52:46actually it was very powdery snow
00:52:48so we had huge amounts of wind
00:52:50pushing all of the snow
00:52:51making massive snow drifts
00:52:55it was good
00:52:5712 to 14 foot of snow
00:53:00outside my house
00:53:03my father come up
00:53:04and he dug us out
00:53:07the snow cut off entire villages
00:53:09and ambulances and emergency services
00:53:12were unable to get to those in need
00:53:15there were cars buried
00:53:17there were signs buried
00:53:20nothing could move
00:53:23for anyone needing hospital
00:53:25it was a matter of life or death
00:53:38the worst blizzard to hit Northern Ireland in generations
00:53:42couldn't have come at a worse time
00:53:44for Noreen Dinsmore
00:53:45I woke up that morning
00:53:46and I
00:53:47well
00:53:48it's hard to explain
00:53:49you just know
00:53:50that your baby's on the move
00:53:53going into labour
00:53:54Noreen desperately
00:53:55needed to get to hospital
00:53:56it was soon clear
00:53:58the chances of an ambulance
00:54:00arriving to help
00:54:01were vanishingly small
00:54:02we pulled the blinds
00:54:03and
00:54:04oh
00:54:05there was snow everywhere
00:54:06couldn't see anything
00:54:08it was just all snow
00:54:09I had never seen
00:54:10snow like it
00:54:14the snow was right up
00:54:15to my knees
00:54:16I can remember walking through it
00:54:18and it was like
00:54:18very deep
00:54:20Noreen's husband George
00:54:22had called the emergency services
00:54:24but the 12 foot drifts of snow
00:54:26meant getting to the house
00:54:27was impossible
00:54:28and the ambulance was forced
00:54:29to wait for Noreen
00:54:31in a car park
00:54:31a mile away
00:54:39I knew if I got as far as the village
00:54:41and maybe
00:54:43there'd be somebody on the road
00:54:46I didn't have a plan
00:54:47to be honest
00:54:49my brother
00:54:50he was a farmer
00:54:51and he had a tractor
00:54:56I thought he was going to
00:54:57leave me up to the village
00:54:59to meet the ambulance
00:55:00but all of a sudden
00:55:01the road was blocked
00:55:03no tractor
00:55:04no cars
00:55:05nothing could walk it
00:55:09I said okay
00:55:10I'm getting off
00:55:11I'm walking
00:55:14deep in labour
00:55:15Noreen battled through
00:55:17sub-zero temperatures
00:55:19knowing the baby could come
00:55:20at any moment
00:55:21we walked
00:55:22and we didn't talk much
00:55:23we just walked
00:55:24and we got to car park
00:55:27and
00:55:29there was
00:55:30the ambulance
00:55:31waiting for me
00:55:33I got to hospital
00:55:34and I can remember
00:55:35the nurse said to me
00:55:37Noreen we need
00:55:38to get this baby born
00:55:40I said
00:55:40we'd be tired
00:55:44next thing then
00:55:45I don't know
00:55:45what happened
00:55:46but next thing
00:55:48I had a baby girl
00:55:50beautiful baby girl
00:55:54I'm Marguerite Doyle
00:55:55I'm 43 years of age
00:55:58and in 1982
00:55:59I was born
00:56:00in what became known
00:56:01as the big snow
00:56:03it's terrifying
00:56:04for any mother
00:56:05to go into labour
00:56:06and obviously
00:56:07given the circumstances
00:56:09of the snow
00:56:09and the worry
00:56:11that you're actually
00:56:11not physically
00:56:12possibly going to
00:56:13even see a medic
00:56:14I can only imagine
00:56:15how scary
00:56:16that must have been
00:56:18for mum
00:56:19she was overcome
00:56:20with just
00:56:21relief
00:56:22that hopefully
00:56:23things were going
00:56:24to work out okay
00:56:24mum got to hospital
00:56:26just in time
00:56:27when I was born
00:56:28thankfully it was
00:56:29a happy ending
00:56:30when I think about it
00:56:31now
00:56:31and thinking about
00:56:33the story now
00:56:34I'm saying
00:56:35how did I do it
00:56:36how did I do it
00:56:38for many years
00:56:40we used to get stopped
00:56:41by the local people
00:56:41in the village
00:56:42and they would always
00:56:43ask mum
00:56:44which one of these
00:56:45is a snow baby
00:56:47the day after
00:56:48Marguerite was born
00:56:49temperatures plummeted
00:56:51even further
00:56:51more places
00:56:52across the UK
00:56:53than any time
00:56:54in history
00:56:55saw a mind-numbing
00:56:56minus 20 degrees
00:56:58recorded
00:56:58what happened
00:57:00on the 9th
00:57:00and 10th of January
00:57:01of 1982
00:57:02was down to this thing
00:57:04called a polar vortex
00:57:05so above the North Pole
00:57:06there's very very very
00:57:07cold air
00:57:08that swells round and round
00:57:09the polar vortex
00:57:11collapsed
00:57:11and it became
00:57:12penetrated much
00:57:13further south
00:57:14a vast train
00:57:15of arctic hair
00:57:16heading straight for us
00:57:17which is why we got
00:57:18these record-breaking
00:57:19sub-zero temperatures
00:57:20on the 10th of January
00:57:22England saw its lowest
00:57:24ever temperature
00:57:25minus 26.1 degrees
00:57:28in Scotland
00:57:29the record of minus
00:57:3027.2 that had stood
00:57:33for 86 years
00:57:34was equaled
00:57:36we had no water
00:57:38our upstairs toilet froze
00:57:41my grandfather
00:57:43my grandfather
00:57:44would be trying
00:57:44the defrost pipes
00:57:45with a little blowtorch
00:57:47but it was so cold
00:57:49it wasn't doing any good
00:57:51I remember running back
00:57:53and forth
00:57:54quite a bit
00:57:55for snow
00:57:56to make cups of tea
00:57:58and keep warm
00:58:00with temperatures
00:58:01with temperatures
00:58:02colder than those
00:58:02at the South Pole
00:58:03the snow wasn't going
00:58:05anywhere
00:58:05even major cities
00:58:07like Cardiff
00:58:08and Swansea
00:58:08were cut off
00:58:09not only from emergency help
00:58:12but essential supplies
00:58:15they had a queue for bread
00:58:16milk
00:58:17and nothing could get
00:58:18into the village
00:58:19and they were only allowed
00:58:21one loaf
00:58:22and one pint of milk
00:58:24at that time
00:58:26for many people
00:58:28the big snow
00:58:29of 1982
00:58:30was devastating
00:58:32with the sub-zero temperatures
00:58:34and the widespread snowfall
00:58:35it was thought
00:58:36that in excess
00:58:36of a thousand people
00:58:38lost their lives
00:58:39to hypothermia
00:58:40I don't think
00:58:41we'll ever see our snow again
00:59:06I literally finished
00:59:07my morning meetings
00:59:09I was about to take a break
00:59:12and the day was just normal
00:59:13it was slightly cloudy
00:59:16there was no real wind
00:59:20I noticed that I thought
00:59:21it was raining
00:59:22but it wasn't
00:59:23I was trying to comprehend
00:59:24what was going on
00:59:27when it touched down
00:59:29I knew what it was
00:59:33we don't normally see
00:59:34tornadoes in North London
00:59:36right
00:59:43at around 10.45 am
00:59:46on December 7th 2006
00:59:48a squall of thunderclouds
00:59:50accelerated eastwards
00:59:51towards London
00:59:52bringing rain
00:59:53hail and lightning
00:59:54to one of the UK's
00:59:55most populated areas
00:59:57it was now
00:59:58a violently rotating
01:00:002.4 km wide vortex
01:00:02of 150 mile per hour winds
01:00:05I was on duty
01:00:06in Wembley
01:00:07the weather on that day
01:00:09was a normal
01:00:10sort of wintry day
01:00:11I was working from home
01:00:13just going around
01:00:14doing my
01:00:15daily work
01:00:17working in meetings
01:00:19sending emails
01:00:22it was about 11 o'clock
01:00:23the sky suddenly went jet black
01:00:28the wind rose
01:00:30there was almost like a static
01:00:32electricity buzz in the air
01:00:34thunder and lightning
01:00:35terrific hail storm
01:00:37I can remember thinking
01:00:39you know
01:00:39we're in for a real downpour
01:00:43a few minutes later
01:00:44my pager sounded
01:00:47I could sort of hear the pitter patter
01:00:49of what I thought was rain
01:00:51on the window
01:00:51as I looked up at the window
01:00:53I noticed that there were
01:00:54no beads of water
01:00:56because I was thinking like
01:00:57it's not getting wet
01:01:01and in fact what was hitting the window
01:01:03looked like grit
01:01:05or dirt or sand
01:01:08that was touching
01:01:09I think that was the first sign
01:01:11that something was actually
01:01:13not usual
01:01:14but it wasn't long
01:01:16until things really did
01:01:17start to change
01:01:20there was no indication
01:01:22of how large
01:01:23this incident was
01:01:24I had no idea
01:01:26what conditions
01:01:27I was going to be going into
01:01:31the sky itself
01:01:32as I looked up
01:01:33just turned really
01:01:35really
01:01:35nearly black
01:01:38really seemed to just lower itself
01:01:40as if it was coming
01:01:41right down
01:01:42and as this was happening
01:01:44you could hear this
01:01:45this roaring sound
01:01:49I actually honestly thought
01:01:50there was a plane going to crash
01:01:52you could see this cloud
01:01:53just drop to the ground
01:01:55in a massive funnel
01:01:56which was about
01:01:57maybe 20 or 30 meters wide
01:01:58it was really fat
01:02:02a tornado
01:02:03a tornado is
01:02:04a violently rotating
01:02:05column of air
01:02:06first off the rotation
01:02:07starts horizontally
01:02:08and then slowly but surely
01:02:10with the wind shear
01:02:11it goes vertically
01:02:12usually from a cloud
01:02:14you'll start to see
01:02:15this little funnel cloud
01:02:16coming out of the bottom
01:02:17but when that cloud
01:02:18touches the ground
01:02:19at that moment
01:02:20that is when it becomes
01:02:21a tornado
01:02:24seconds before 11 o'clock
01:02:26the swirling thunderclouds
01:02:28travelling over London
01:02:29turned into a tornado
01:02:31all hell just broke loose
01:02:34and that's when everything
01:02:35started flying
01:02:37large pieces of brick
01:02:41cement
01:02:45wood
01:02:46lead
01:02:47started hitting the house
01:02:49my windows got broken
01:02:52you could hear things crashing
01:02:54onto the roof of the house
01:02:57and in front of me
01:02:58the houses
01:02:59there
01:02:59glass exploding
01:03:01out of them
01:03:03the roar was just so intense
01:03:05I took cover
01:03:06it
01:03:07it was truly
01:03:08you know
01:03:09shocking
01:03:10it did make you fear
01:03:11for your life
01:03:11because it was so close
01:03:15it was then
01:03:17pretty eerily quiet
01:03:19tornadoes are actually
01:03:20not that unusual
01:03:21we tend to see about
01:03:2230
01:03:22in any given year
01:03:24we don't often think
01:03:25about the UK
01:03:26having tornadoes
01:03:27it's something we often
01:03:28associate with
01:03:29South East Asia
01:03:30or America
01:03:31with the tornado alley
01:03:32but actually
01:03:34per square meter
01:03:35of earth
01:03:36in the world
01:03:37the UK
01:03:37has more tornadoes
01:03:38than anyone else
01:03:39where this one hit
01:03:41was the problem
01:03:42it was highly
01:03:43residential
01:03:43the tornado
01:03:45tore a 2.7
01:03:47kilometre wide trail
01:03:48of destruction
01:03:49through Kensal Rise
01:03:50walking from the
01:03:51control units
01:03:52to where the
01:03:53the scene of
01:03:54devastation
01:03:54I can only describe it as
01:03:57was like walking
01:03:58through some sort of
01:03:59time portal in a
01:04:00sci-fi film
01:04:02on one side
01:04:03everything was
01:04:04fairly normal
01:04:05apart from the
01:04:06mountains of litter
01:04:07and then all of a sudden
01:04:08there was just
01:04:10devastation
01:04:14you could see
01:04:15from my balcony
01:04:16big brick
01:04:17chimneys were missing
01:04:18had just been ripped
01:04:20off
01:04:22I've been to terrorist
01:04:24incidents
01:04:24and bomb blasts
01:04:25and it looked like that
01:04:26it looked as though
01:04:28the bomb had gone off
01:04:32when our crews arrived
01:04:34they were faced
01:04:35with a number
01:04:36of seriously damaged
01:04:38properties
01:04:39our fire crews have searched
01:04:41over a hundred properties
01:04:42and have found that
01:04:44several people
01:04:45were injured
01:04:46and had been treated
01:04:47on scene
01:04:47by the London ambulance
01:04:48service
01:04:49the tornado ripped
01:04:51through six streets
01:04:52across Kensal Rise
01:04:53leaving devastation
01:04:55in its wake
01:04:55it took off chimneys
01:04:58it fell trees
01:04:59and it ripped off
01:05:00the ends
01:05:01of multiple buildings
01:05:02in its path
01:05:03this was a scene
01:05:04of absolute devastation
01:05:06there would be
01:05:07a building
01:05:08with no glass
01:05:09in the house
01:05:10at all
01:05:10roof removed
01:05:11gable end wall
01:05:12blown down
01:05:14one of my neighbours
01:05:15Fiona's
01:05:16the front of her house
01:05:17was literally
01:05:18like blown out
01:05:22there was a van
01:05:24parked in the middle
01:05:25of the road
01:05:25and every
01:05:26piece of glass
01:05:27in the van
01:05:27was broken
01:05:28and the chap
01:05:29was still sitting
01:05:30in there
01:05:31and he was just
01:05:33as white as a sheet
01:05:34shaking
01:05:34the look on his face
01:05:35I'll never forget him
01:05:38miraculously
01:05:39no one died
01:05:40in Kensal Rise
01:05:41but the power
01:05:42of the tornado
01:05:43did cause
01:05:44real harm
01:05:44there were six
01:05:46people injured
01:05:46and five
01:05:47with minor injuries
01:05:48and one person
01:05:49with fairly severe
01:05:50head injuries
01:05:51could have been
01:05:52far far worse
01:05:58I think for a lot
01:05:59of people
01:06:00it was quite
01:06:00a sad day
01:06:01because
01:06:02many of them
01:06:03wouldn't be able
01:06:04to come back
01:06:04into their properties
01:06:05for several months
01:06:07even years
01:06:09in some cases
01:06:10it's not habitable
01:06:12it's not habitable
01:06:13so they will be
01:06:13I wouldn't have thought
01:06:15they'll be able to go in there
01:06:15until the roof is repaired
01:06:16so a good few months
01:06:17the roof's mostly blown off
01:06:19so we need to secure it
01:06:21so there's no water damage
01:06:22I think it will stick in my mind
01:06:24forever
01:06:24and I won't forget the images
01:06:26in my mind
01:06:27about the actual
01:06:27sort of size and scale of it
01:06:29and the power
01:06:31it had
01:06:32not something you could
01:06:33easily forget
01:06:34I think
01:06:34it just went really dark
01:06:36me and my friend
01:06:37had to hold onto the railing
01:06:38it was that windy
01:06:39and it just went
01:06:39completely black
01:06:40and then just big dust storms
01:06:41flying around everywhere
01:06:42to see that amount
01:06:44of devastation
01:06:46with no apparent cause
01:06:48was something that
01:06:49I don't think anybody
01:06:50can be trained for
01:06:52it's certainly something
01:06:53that will remain with me
01:06:55forever
01:07:24forever
01:07:26you
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