The clean up begins after high winds battered South Holland

The clean up operations has begun after high winds battered South Holland in the early hours of this morning (Thursday, January 18).

Many residents awoke to find damage to property caused by gusts that were recorded as being around 70mph.

Deeping St Nicholas amateur meteorologist Nicholas Watts told The Voice: “I think that we got the worst of the wind in this area. The strongest of the winds are around the eye of the storm. I think the depression was just north of us so we had the winds of about 70mph.

“That’s the speed when you expect trees to come down. It’s the kind of wind speed you get once every five years.”

“I came down this morning at 5.30am and I wondered what the great roaring noise was. I realised it was the wind blowing through the nearby poplar trees.”

Many people’s morning commutes were complicated by several trees being reported blown over in the area.

Several school buses were not running this morning.

Spalding based Fowlers Coaches released a statement saying: “Due to the extreme weather this morning all school services are suspended. As the wind is due to calm down services will resume this afternoon. Apologies for any inconvenience.”

Cropley Coaches also halted school services. In response to criticism on their Facebook page the company posted: “We at Cropley Coaches have and will always be a ‘prevention is better than cure’ company and this was one of those instances.

“A decision was made not to run Lincolnshire County Council school run AM contracts at the time for the safety of our passengers ‘i.e the children on the school runs’ due to adverse weather conditions and debris on the road.

“We appreciate this would have caused a massive inconvenience to your day but its all about keeping the little tykes safe and preventing a problem. PM and ongoing school runs as per normal now.

“Thanks for your cooperation and understanding. Stay safe.”

Lincolnshire Police received numerous reports of trees blocking roads including Roman Bank and the B1356 in Spalding and the  A17 in Sutterton.

Jo Bailey of Cradge Bank sent The Voice a picture of the tree that had blocked her road.

She said: “It is a very large tree approximately 300 yards from our house.

“It’s blocking the whole road and it looks as if another one next to it is a little unstable.we are town side so aren’t stranded but quite a few vehicles have had to turn round as obviously can’t get through.

“I feel sorry for the people who’s journeys have been disrupted in the area and damage some people have had.”

A host of people saw roof tiles blown off, fences torn down or lost trampolines.

Lindi Frith of Lutton has a hole in her porch after a roof tile blew off.

She said: “We were lucky. The wind sounded like an express train coming.”