'Tornado' rips through Staffordshire village damaging homes and overturning caravan

15 April 2024, 22:18

A suspected tornado has ripped through a Staffordshire village, damaging several homes and overturning a caravan.

Gale-force winds tore through the village of Knutton, near Stoke-on-Trent, early on Monday morning, leaving a trail of destruction for residents.

St Giles Road was cordoned off as emergency services rushed to the scene to check the safety of homes with missing roof tiles and chimney pots.

Among the residents affected was David Hemming, who was at work when the strong winds hit his home and knocked his caravan onto its side on his driveway.

"It was just one big gust of wind," he said. "I was at work, I was just leaving and I looked at the camera on the house before I left, and my caravan was on its side and had smashed into my van.

"I haven't got a clue what happens now. The fire brigade said they might be able to help me, but they've got more important things to be worrying about at the minute.

"I'm hoping they will be able to come and right it for me, then I'll have to empty it out and get it scrapped."

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Mr Hemming continued: "There is glass everywhere, everything is covered in it.

"There are two sheds gone at the back. It has destroyed all the fence panels. It was just 20 seconds and then that was it, it had gone.

"It must have been a tornado from all the damage it has done. It's just gone straight through the street."

His neighbour, Michael Wearing, said one shed ended up in his back garden and had spent the day trying to clear the debris.

Mr Wearing had just returned from walking his dog and said it was fortunate he arrived back when he did, otherwise he could have been injured by flying tiles.

"It was definitely a tornado, without a shadow of a doubt. You heard it winding up, it sounded like a Hoover starting up," he said.

"I was drying the dog and he normally sits on a towel but he shot in through the back door with his tail between his legs.

"Literally 10 seconds later, I shut the door and stuff just started flying."

Deborah Wainwright said she thought someone was trying to get into her home when her front door started banging.

She said: "Then all the tiles started flying around and hitting everything. My carer's car has probably been written off because of the damage as roof tiles have been hitting it.

"He's had to claim off the insurance.

"It terrified me, nothing like this has ever happened before - we have had storms before but nothing like this. it just started raining as normal and then it just came, it was petrifying.

"I can't even let my dogs out in the back garden because the fence panels have come down and the concrete posts are all bent.

"There are tiles stuck in the lawn in the back garden and there is glass everywhere."

The Met Office has said it was unable to confirm whether the strong gusts could be considered a tornado.

Stephen Dixon, Met Office spokesman, said: "Tornadoes do happen in the UK and they're generally short-lived in nature, but around 30 a year are reported on average.

"Today there have been some reports of some particularly impactful winds.

"The fronts that were moving southwards this morning had some potential for some short-lived tornadoes within them, but we would need to assess the impact."