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Freak Hail storm swamps Ottery St Mary
• Hailstorm swamps small town in river of ice
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By
The Minx, Features editor
Friday,
31 October, 2008
Hailstorm swamps one small town in 6ft drifts - and it's still only October
These astonishing scenes are the aftermath of a deluge of hailstones that buried a town in a river of ice. Ottery St Mary, in Devon, was plunged into chaos by the storm in the early hours of 30 October 2008.
First, the area was battered by an astonishing 12in of hail in just two hours. Hailstones pelted down burying cars in a sea of ice. This blocked drains, which led to widespread flooding as the rain began to fall.
More than 100 people had to be evacuated from their homes and 25 were airlifted to safety or rescued by firefighters. The Met Office said the 'hugely localised' weather system was less than 4 miles across and seemed ' to be centred on Ottery St Mary'. The most severe weather hit just after midnight on Thursday but by 5am the entire town was cut off and coastguards scrambled helicopters to airlift residents.
Emergency services were inundated with calls from terrified home owners who watched helplessly as flood water rose to 5ft high in some places, and there were fears that hundreds of animals may have been killed in the floods.
Residents in Ottery St Mary said the town was unrecognisable after the hail storm.
Sarah Galliford said: 'I was woken up by the sound of hailstones thundering down on the roof. I thought it was the end of the world. I looked outside at about 1am and there was a river of ice coming down the street. It was a total freak of nature. It wasn't even on the weather forecast. They said there would be rain but nothing like this. It was absolutely crazy.'
Clara Pedmore added: 'There is 2ft 6ins of water on the road. I can't get out of the house.One farm nearby has lost about 500 sheep which were out in fields which are now completely underwater.' Emergency crews also sent in jeeps and fire appliances and boats to take residents to an evacuation centre at the local hospital.
Tony Fabry, who runs the town's post office, said: 'At one point I was watching beer barrels, sandwich boards and even a children's slide floating down the road. 'It was absolutely horrendous. It was a nightmare and it happened so quickly. The drains became blocked with hail and so when the snow melted it was just a deluge.'
David Garland, whose home was completely flooded, said: 'It happened in a matter of minutes and all of a sudden the whole house was deluged. I didn't have time to save anything at all because it happened so quickly. Everything was ruined.'
Fire crews rescued an elderly couple at 10.30am who were stranded on the roof of their car. The two pensioners had scrambled on top of their vehicle after they became trapped and the car started to quickly fill with water.
Susanne Reed from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said: 'It has been absolute chaos. It started just after midnight when we were out rescuing people stuck in their cars in flood water. It got worse and worse and one of our own crews got stuck in a 6ft hail drift. We have been rescuing people constantly.'
The Naked Reader 2008
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