Storms smash into the region and batter town

The extreme weather resulted in 63 calls to East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service’s Mobilising and Communications Centre, and crews attended 51 incidents throughout the night.

These included a call to Grinley Court in Cranfield Road, where the roof of a block of flats was blown off by strong winds. About 100 metres of roofing felt was lifted into the air and dumped into the road. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Bexhill firefighters were called to the incident at 11.34pm and were on the scene, making the area safe, until 3.28am. Residents from the flats were forced to find temporary alternative accommodation due to the severe damage to the property.

An awning above the London Road butcher’s shop was another casualty of gusts of up to 60mph, ripped from its fixings at the height of the storm.

Proprietor Rob Green said: “The fortunate thing about it was that it didn’t go through the shop window or damage passing traffic.

“But when we came in to open up and found it wrecked, it set us back by more than two hours as we struggled to remove the debris and get the shop open.

“With Christmas coming up we’re obviously very busy, so this was the last thing we could have done with.”

In common with many towns and villages in the area, Bexhill had its fair share of dislodged tiles, upended wheelie bins and fallen branches to contend with, too, and as the Observer went to press was bracing itself for more stormy weather last night.