A Wigan family on a camping holiday in Cornwall found themselves caught up in the middle of a storm — which saw wind speeds hit almost 70mph.
Mark Morgan-Hillam, 48, his wife, Leanne, 43, and their children, went camping just above Polzeath, Cornwall, on Thursday evening, just as the summer holidays started.
Images from campsites across the Cornish peninsula show tents blown over by the gusts, CornwallLive reports.
Mark said his family were 'caught out' by the fearsome winds, which came about courtesy of Storm Evert — as were a number of other people on his campsite.
“The lack of warning was an issue,” the deputy head teacher from Appley Bridge, told the PA news agency.
“It was only at 9 [or] 10pm at night that we noticed the storm warning had changed to amber and I think that caught a lot of people out on our site who went to bed thinking it would be windy, but not blow their tent over.”
Storm Evert, which began on Thursday evening, produced gusts of winds close to 70mph across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The highest gust recorded so far was 69mph in St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly, the Met Office said.
The Met Office added that “further heavy downpours” were expected on Saturday, the worst of which would be central, eastern and southern England.
The forecasters said it was the first named storm in months and issued an 'Amber Alert' for Cornwall — bringing a 'danger to life'.
RNLI volunteer crews from St Mary’s and Sennen Cove spent Thursday night helping to rescue people from yachts around the Isles of Scilly — and Falmouth Coastguard Operations Centre reported a total of 22 incidents on Thursday night.
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