Blown over

Photo: Picture by DARREN ROBINSON

STORM force . . . Steve Todd assesses the damage at his Royton home.

A SHOCKED couple were given a rude awakening when gale-force winds tore the roof off their home.

Pat Todd was just about to get ready for work when she heard what she describes as a “horrendous” sound at 7am yesterday.

Once she realised something was wrong, she and husband Steve charged outside to see the true extent of damage caused by the howling gales — and they couldn’t believe their eyes.

The entire roof of the front and back dormer had taken flight at their property in Buttermere Grove, Royton.

Pat said: “I heard a loud scraping and crashing noise, it was horrendous and I knew something wasn’t right.

“I went into the front bedroom and even though we have a streetlight outside, it was completely pitched black in the room.

“I went into the room next door and it was the same there. Then I realised the roof had come down and was draped over the front of the house.

“I just thought ‘oh my god’ when we went outside.

“We’ve had strong winds before but it has never caused damage like this.

“It’s torn the roof off like a can of sardines right from the back to the front. It must have been strong, another house had a satellite dish in the garden and someone’s TV aerial had landed in ours.”

But the damage was just the start of the worries for Pat and Steve, who was a joiner but now suffers from arthritis and has undergone a hip replacement. Heavy rain saw floods of water leak into the house, coming through light sockets and drenching the carpets and bedsheets at their home of 26 years.

Now they’re faced with having to make an insurance claim and foot the bill for temporary repairs while praying for the weather to stay dry in the meantime. It’s all the more frustrating for Steve, who once would have repaired the roof himself.

Pat added: “There’s water coming in everywhere, we’ve got buckets all over the place and no power upstairs. We don’t know where we stand with the insurance company and how much they will pay.

“We might have to stay here — we’re just hoping it doesn’t rain hard.”

The drama unfolded as the country was battered by ferocious gales which wreaked havoc throughout the UK.

A van driver in Tunbridge Wells was killed when a falling oak tree crushed his vehicle yesterday.

Elsewhere power lines were down, lorries tumbled over on busy roads and rough seas caused the Port of Dover to be closed.

Gusts reached up to 100mph in Scotland, while gales of between 65 to 75mph were recorded in the north of England.