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Calm after the storm

From the Blackpool Citizen, first published Thursday 25th Jan 2007.

Businesses were closed and tram lines went down after the Fylde coast was battered by the worst gales in the last 17 years.

Winds at speeds of up to 92mph caused devastation across the area on January 18 with trees ripped from their roots and tiles blown off roof tops.

Blackpool town centre became a near no-go zone and at about 3pm police advised businesses to shut up shop.

Fallen trees blocked off many roads including Newton Drive and St Thomas Road, Blackpool and Amounderness Way, Fleetwood, where vehicles had to be diverted.

Flying debris wreaked havoc for drivers and pedestrians with many roads closed including part of the Promenade in Blackpool and Cleveleys.

Large chuncks of the roof at Blackpool's Clifton Hotel, Charnley Road and the Chilton Hotel, Lytham Road, were taken off in the winds and children at Palatine High School, St Annes Road, South Shore, were sent home after high winds blew out the outer section of the roof above four classrooms.

A spokesman at the school said: "We've had to bring pupils back year by year as some areas of the school are still being seen to by contractors. Nothing like this has ever happened before. We were all very shocked. The wind just seems to be getting more and more violent."

Part of the school remains closed and the four affected classrooms are still out of bounds.

Swimming pools in St Annes and Kirkham were closed and residents of Harrison Street in the town centre were evacuated to Blackpool Sports Centre after roofs came off several homes.

In Lytham two elderly women fell in the wind and received minor injuries while shopping and St Annes Highbury Road West was closed after the wind loosened a lamp-post.

Blackpool Victoria Hospital treated more than 40 people during the chaos.

Church volunteers at St Stephen's on the Cliffs, North Shore, are still clearing bricks from the church hall which were dismantled in the wind.

The church had recently been redecorated after the floor was flooded by blocked drains in October last year.

Churchgoer Sheila Winter, of Cornwall Avenue, North Shore, sent the Citizen pictures of the damage.

She said: "We've only just had it refurbished and now this has happened, it seems to be a series of unfortunate incidents.

"Thankfully the children who come here for playschool had just gone home otherwise there could have been some serious injuries."

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