Portmeirion: Cars crushed by trees at holiday resort
- Published
At least eight cars were damaged by the trees
Several cars have been damaged by fallen trees at a holiday resort in north Wales.
Visitors to Portmeirion, in Gwynedd, said strong winds felled two trees overnight, which caused damage to at least eight cars on Wednesday night.
One man, whose car was not damaged, said the tree fell "three or four feet" from the roof of his accommodation and described the scene as "chaos".
BBC Wales has approached the Portmeirion resort for comment.
Caroline Keenan, from Nantwich in Cheshire, who is on holiday in Portmeirion's Italianate village with her two children, said her Audi was damaged by one of the trees.
Two trees fell down overnight
She said: "I heard the storm in the night. They called me from reception to say that large trees had come down in the night and said there were eight cars damaged.
"We're due to go home tomorrow morning. We've been trying to sort something to get a hire car and sort the insurance.
"I thought it was a thunderstorm because I heard a cracking and big rumbles. It wasn't far from us. It was probably about 30m away."
'It was chaos'
Portmeirion is an Italianate village where the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner was filmed
Meanwhile, Rob Fennah, from the Wirral peninsula, said conditions had been "calm and still" in the village late on Wednesday evening, before the wind started to pick up in the night.
"When we were settling down for the evening and we noticed the wind had picked up and, over the course of a couple of hours, we heard car alarms going off and occasionally we heard a few bumps and bangs and stuff. I'm surprised it didn't make more of a crash," he said.
"This morning when we got up it was chaos really, this row of cars was completely and utterly taken out. One of the cars was almost flattened.
"It's just amazing, if it had happened any other time of day, if it had happened during the day, God knows what could've happened."
Rob Fennah said one car had been "almost flattened" by the trees
He said the tree had a near miss with his accommodation.
"It was just quite scary. The tree came down and some of the twigs were on the roof of the building we were in. It fell about three or four feet away from the roof of the building," he said.
"It was a huge tree - would've thought it would've made the ground shake."
Warning ahead of weekend
Campers at Pencarnan Farm near St Davids have been leaving as winds pick up
Meanwhile, the high winds have prompted a warning for people not to take risks on or near the sea in Pembrokeshire.
Campsites in the county say many of those staying in tents have left early, cutting their holidays short. Meanwhile lifeboat crews are standing by as high tides create large waves offshore.
Sian Richardson from Pencarnan Farm Caravan Park said: "We did lose a lot tents last night... [a lot of people] looked at the forecast and they just left.
"Those who survived the night have all got very interesting stories to tell but we've had an awful lot of cancellations over the last couple of days - people not wanting to even risk being here."
RNLI crews have also warned people not to use inflatables on the sea and to go into the water in pairs.
Five flood warnings have been issued across south west wales with winds of up to 70mph expected on Thursday night - as storm Ellen continues across Wales.
- Published19 August 2020
