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The Kensal Rise Tornado
Residents were left shocked and bewildered after a tornado wreaked chaos across Kensal Rise on Thursday (Dec 8).
The twister caused extensive damage to property in less than a minute after striking the area at 11am.
More than 100 homes were affected by the freak weather occurrence with Chamberlayne Road, Whitmore Gardens and Crediton Road the worst hit. Six people were injured and one man was treated in hospital for a head wound.
“I saw something coming up the road and there was a strange noise,” said shopkeeper Shaukat Irshad, 42, whose store at the bottom of Chamberlayne Road had its awning torn half off.
“I can’t explain what I saw – everything was up in the air. It was scary.”
Across the road, in Harris & Company estate agents, staff were preparing to run when the tornado suddenly died away.
“It stopped right outside, it was pretty horrifying,” said Biran Desai. “It was close enough for us to see the ‘twist’.”
Sally Johnson, also of Harris’s, ventured into neighbouring streets to take photos of the damage, and was shocked by what she saw. “All the windows in cars and houses were smashed, and you could hardly walk on the street because of the bricks and tiles. We could see it coming down the road, but all those others couldn’t.”
London Fire Brigade sent 25 teams to the scene of the devastation, and evacuated all homes within a quarter of a mile while attempts were made to secure the area. Many properties are believed to have been so structurally damaged that they will require extensive work to make safe – some will even have to be demolished.
Evacuees were sent to the local church, although many continued to wander the surrounding streets, exchanging stories even as the rain began to fall again.
Daniel Bidgood, of Crediton Road, described a “funnel, 25 to 30 metres across” swirling dirt against the windows of his house, where he was working from home.
“I was looking at it as I was on the phone to the fire brigade,” he said. “I tried to film it, but as I went out my window smashed, so I bottled it.”
Anderson Lima and Laura Ortiz, aged 24 and 23, were in bed in their home on Whitmore Gardens when they were awoken by the sound of the high wind.
“We went out, and all around was destroyed,” said Mr Lima.
“The neighbours’ tree fell into our back garden,” said Ms Ortiz. “Rubbish was everywhere, and a trampoline from one of the gardens nearby had flown about four houses sideways.”
The couple, whose camera phone recording of the debris showed a tree fallen across the road, were among the residents housed in temporary accommodation overnight.
Alex Morris from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team, said the emergency handling of the situation was “unacceptable”, because the authorities had taken too long to arrive.
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