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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Thomas Deacon

'The roof blew off my house during Storm Ciara'

Storm Ciara blew the roof off a house in the Valleys causing massive damage.

Colin Woolford was fast-asleep over the weekend when his wife woke him up in a panic.

Pictures of their house in Pen-y-Graig show extensive damage to the roof, multiple leaks and various cracks in the ceiling throughout the property. 

The damaged roof pictured from the inside (Colin Woolford)

Despite the roof being renewed only around seven years ago the strong winds over the weekend caused a large part of it to blow away.

Colin said: "I worked Saturday night and came home and went to bed at about 5.30am.

"Then my wife woke up just gone 12, saying 'quick, quick, the roof has blown off'.

"I jumped out of bed, got the electricity off and started making everything safe."

The damage caused by the storm on the inside (Colin Woolford)

The Balfour Beatty railway worker described waking up to "horrendous weather" and "howling rain".

Despite the lack of roof, Colin said he's still living at the property to try and prevent any further damage as poor weather continues to hit the country.

Some of the debris blown off (Richard Swingler)

Snow is falling across parts of Wales a day after Storm Ciara battered Wales with winds of up to 93mph.

It is all less than 24 hours after streets and buildings were flooded, and trains, flights and ferries were cancelled after the country was hit by the storm on Sunday.

Rugby fans heading back from the game in Ireland had  flights cancelled or had to find alternative ways back.

Meanwhile, a  lorry was blown over on the old Severn Crossing after of a sudden "spike" in the wind.

The Met Office said that "a spell of very strong winds," with gusts of 60-70mph was expected across parts of the UK on Monday afternoon.

Welsh fan has nightmare of a flight on way back from Dublin

Colin said: "I can't really put a price on the damage at the moment. We've got scaffolding going up. It's not safe at the moment.

"Everything loose and dangerous has gone too. We're just waiting now."

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