A Newport man has told how the roof of a shop flew across a road and smashed into his home.
Brian Joyce was watching television with his partner Alison Bradnick at around 10.30am on Friday when Storm Eunice winds tore the roof off the Premier convenience shop opposite their house.
The roof sailed through the air before hitting the couple's Christchurch Road home and both neighbouring houses, leaving the properties in a wreck.
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Mr Joyce, a 69-year-old retired brewery worker, did not see the roof crash into his home but he heard an "almighty bang".
He said: "We were sitting watching TV — I can't remember what, a box-set or something. The next thing the shop roof comes totally off and smashes into ours."
The roof hit the upstairs bedroom bay window and the front section of the roof. Bricks and mortar fell into the front garden while roof debris landed in the back yard where the fence was torn down along with guttering and drainpipes.
Premier shopkeeper Amratbai Meghji said debris from the roofs of the two homes on either side of the shop had also come off and hit the three properties opposite. A car windscreen was shattered.
"I hadn't a clue what was going on," said Mr Joyce. "It was bang, crash, debris falling. It was just me and my partner in the house, and our two dogs who went berserk. When I came out there were two dozen people looking shocked that I'd come out alive.
"It was terrifying but your adrenaline is going and you don't think of that. You just want to get out. It sort of hit me a couple of hours afterwards when you start going into a tiny state of shock."
The couple and their dogs took shelter in the Premier shop. Their 92-year-old neighbour managed to get out of his wrecked house and into the store. Police and firefighters arrived in about five minutes, said Mr Joyce. No one was injured.
We spoke to Mr Joyce on Saturday morning, with Christchurch Road still closed. Mr Joyce's home and the two damaged houses on either side were still fenced off. Wearing a hard hat, he showed us the rain pouring into his bedroom and hallway upstairs.
"You can understand your own roof tiles blowing off but not a shop's roof coming off from across the road and hitting yours," he said. "It's a chance in a million.
"My partner is very stressed. We are presuming it's going to be five to six months to move back in, there's so much work to be done."
Mr Joyce and Ms Bradnick are staying at her mother's home. Their two Cavalier cross dogs are "OK, just a bit spooked out", said Mr Joyce. He is hopeful the cost of repair can be covered by insurance.
Ms Meghji, 46, said she had never experienced something so frightening in her eight years running the Premier shop.
She said: "The first thing I heard was these wooden pallets I had outside. They fell so I went out and put them back against the wall. Half an hour later I heard a massive bang. I came running out and as soon as I came out I saw the roof had gone.
"I was shaking. I didn't know what to do. I was screaming at people to get out of their houses, knocking on doors. Even now when I think about it I can feel my legs shaking.
"I felt for the people in the houses. I'm glad no one was hurt. I had gone outside a couple of times beforehand to check if the wind was getting worse. If I'd been out when the roof came off, my life would have been at risk."
The damage to the Premier shop has seen water leak into the upstairs flat and the back of the store itself. The tenants are staying elsewhere. Ms Meghji said she was waiting for a structural engineer to assess the damage.
Paying tribute to the shopkeeper and neighbours, Mr Joyce said: "Everyone told us, 'Come in, come in, you can stay with us, have dinner with us.' Under the circumstances the last thing on your mind is to eat, but everyone chipped in with being very friendly."
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