The occupants of a house in Tameside had to be evacuated after a huge tree toppled onto it during Storm Claudia
Residents thought a bomb had gone off when they heard a “massive bang” during Storm Claudia.
The huge noise sparked chaos with three people inside the house in Tameside were forced to evacuate after a massive tree fell onto their property during Storm Claudia.
An Elm tree inside the grounds of Milton St John’s Primary school in Mossley was sent crashing down in the high winds and into the end of a row of terraces late last night.
The tree caused significant damage including a punctured roof and a leaning gable wall, according to the property’s landlord. Danny Wilco, 36, the owner of the property who rents it out, revealed that there were three adults inside at the time of the incident, one of whom was in the bedroom directly above where the tree struck.
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They reported hearing a ‘massive bang’ before alerting him and the emergency services, who promptly arrived at the scene and closed off the road where the tree remains sprawled.
As of today (Saturday), the area around the tree is cordoned off and the road remains closed to traffic from the junction with Carrhill Road down to Milton Street. Tree experts have been called in to assess the extent of the damage, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Mr Wilco said: “There was a massive bang. They thought a bomb had gone off. They rang me straight away. At first I thought it might be a branch or something, but then I started getting more calls from neighbours. When I got here I thought ‘well its more than a branch!'”.
“I made sure they all got out of the house. Thankfully no one was hurt. If it would have gone the other way on a school day it would have gone straight into the school, so its quite lucky in that sense really.
“Apparently its the only Elm tree left in Mossley. Its punctured the roof and the gable wall is leaning.”
Mr Wilco owns a number of other properties across Tameside and Oldham and said he had had to deal with around a dozen other incidents.
“I had a roof come off in Shaw, a huge retaining a wall come down and smash into three houses. Roller shuts blown in, trees coming, flooding. There was about 12 separate incidents. So by the time I was told about this one I wasn’t surprised and was just laughing. If you don’t laugh you’ll cry.”
Dozens of trees toppled across the area on Friday as Storm Claudia unleashed gusts reaching 50 to 60mph alongside over 20mm – roughly three quarters of an inch – of rainfall within 24 hours.
Specialists were forced to clear away a fallen tree that had crashed onto a terrace of homes in Edgeley, Stockport.
Railway services, tram networks and major routes have been severely disrupted as the area assesses the damage from the wild weather.
