Flood of 1953: Canvey Island survivor looks to 70th year reunion

Mrs Evans, (left), has vivid memories of her sister Judith, who was four years old when she died in the flood of 1953

A woman whose four-year-old sister died beside her during the devastating flood of 1953 said she is looking forward to a reunion with other survivors.

Edna Evans and her family shivered with hypothermia on the corrugated roof of their cabin for 12 hours, as 8ft-high waters swirled around them.

Her sister Judith was one of 59 people from Canvey Island in Essex who died.

Mrs Evans, who lives in Norfolk, will return for the 70th anniversary commemoration.

"I just want to be there," said the 76-year-old, who will watch as a new plaque is unveiled on Wednesday.

"To be with like-minded people who have also suffered and there aren't that many of us left now."

Edna Evans, née Goodman, pictured with her father, lived in a modest home on Canvey Island

Mrs Evans lived with her sister and parents, May and Ted Goodman, in a "little shack" close to the sea wall, without electricity and with an outside "bucket and chuck it" toilet.

Mr Goodman served in World War Two and rationing was still in force.

As a six-year-old she said she remembered her father playing the banjo on the night of 31 January and how he cut out "streams" of figurines from newspaper.

Graham Everitt, Ann and Doreen White lay flowers for lost friends

She said she woke to find their mattresses sliding into the water and the other furniture - including a chest of drawers - floating.

Her father clambered out of a bedroom window, in his underpants, before breaking a hole in the corrugated roof, seemingly with his bare hands.

In their night dresses, they clambered up and huddled together, watching the other silhouettes cowering helplessly in the moonlight.

"Mum and dad kept losing consciousness," she recalled.

"When dad came round he said to me 'keep yelling it, keep yelling' you're bringing me back.

"When daylight came, we could see exactly what the story was and I can see it in my mind's eye today, those sorts of things you don't forget."

Bungalows sitting beside the flood walls were the most severely affected properties

She remembered a house swept off its foundations that "miraculously" sailed past them.

Her mother estimated that a man in a dinghy did not arrive until 13:00 GMT.

'Disaster'

Mrs Evans woke in an ambulance to find a man rubbing her sister's chest beside her.

"He said 'you go back to sleep my darling, I'll look after your sister," she said.

"When we eventually got to Southend General hospital, I went one way to a ward that was obviously overflowing with people, it was a disaster, and she turned the other way, and I later found out it was to the morgue, so she obviously died on the way, or on the roof - we don't know."

Judith had suffered with pneumonia the previous October, she said.

Mrs Evans went on to work in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa over a 21-year period, primarily as a secretary in the farming industry.

She has two grown-up children and lives with her husband of 32 years in Weasenham, Norfolk.

Her mother never told her where Judith was buried, but in 2013 she found her sister's grave at Jotman's Cemetery in Benfleet, in the same grave as three young brothers.

"It made me feel at home a bit," said Mrs Evans, who was last in Canvey for the 60th anniversary commemorations.

"At least now there are signs that she lived."

Edna Evans, who is in Weasenham in Norfolk, says she could never live by the sea again

Mrs Evans still has clear memories of her sister, 70 years on.

"She was a joker," she said, recalling how her sister saved things to show her after the school day.

"I can't remember what I had for breakfast but I can remember that lot.

"It's very vivid in my memory, very very vivid."