Norfolk 1953 floods - how EDP reported 'gale disaster'

The EDP's presses in Norwich were held until the early hours of the morning as the scale of the disaster around the coast unfolded, as the towering tide smashed homes to matchwood and stole the lives of many who lived in them.

Seventy years later the yellowing front page, dominated by a picture of the sea pouring inland at Cley, remains one of the most harrowing in the paper's long history.   

Grim Toll

How our report into the disaster began (Image: Newsquest)

Casualties in the worst affected areas were listed, community by devastated community, as the wind dropped and the waters receded.

Up to 40 were being reported at Hunstanton, including many American service families billeted in wooden chalets along the resort's South Beach.

Most of the bungalows had been swept away by the tide. The rest of the town was without water, because salt had entered the supply.

The aftermath of the flooding in Hunstanton (Image: Newsquest)

A further 20 casualties were being reported at Snettisham. Fifteen lives had been lost and 2,000 evacuated from their homes at King's Lynn.

There were seven dead, including three children at Sea Palling. At least six were known to have been killed at Great Yarmouth.

At Canvey Island, there were 40 dead and 13,000 homeless.

It was our region's worst-ever peacetime disaster.

Rescues and relief

American service personnel and a police officer search for survivors of the flooding at Hunstanton (Image: Newsquest)

American service personnel would emerge as the heroes of the hour at Hunstanton, where their bravery saved many from the sea. 

Only later would the heroism of men like Reis Leeming and Freeman Kilpatrick, who plucked dozens from the waves emerge.

A food flying squad was sent from Cambridge to King's Lynn, where emergency feeding stations were being set up for those left homeless.

American personnel prepare food in a makeshift field kitchen (Image: Newsquest)

Rest centres were opened for those whose homes remained under several feet of water, who were unable to find accommodation with friends or relatives.

Some 700 were being looked after at the then Gaywood Park High School, we reported.

RAF bases sent them mattresses and blankets, as officials warned they would not be able to return home for several days.

Gale's terrifying power

A boat left stranded on the quay at Wells after the flood tide receded (Image: Newsquest)

Fishermen in north Norfolk described the storm as "more violent than any they had ever seen, whipped by a gale of more than 110mph".

It brought "havoc and destruction" to the coast between Cromer and Walcott.

"Along this strip sea walls were breached, holiday bungalows were blown down, blown out to sea or torn to pieces and strewn over a wide area," one of our journalists noted.

The scene in South Lynn, where a tidemark clearly shows the height the waters reached (Image: Newsquest)

Houses disappeared over the cliff at Bacton. A dozen were lost at Walcott, where the coast road was washed away.

The Automobile Association warned many coastal roads in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Essex remained impassable.  

Thousands of acres underwater

The scene in South Lynn seen from the air (Image: Newsquest)

A Ministry of Agriculture official said the aftermath of the flooding was "very grim".

More than 6,000 acres between Hunstanton and Wolferton remained underwater as the EDP went to press.

The greater part, including areas of the Royal Estate at Sandringham, had been reclaimed a decade or so during the Second World War as arable land to grow food.

The scene around the station at Wells (Image: Newsquest)

Large areas around Ingoldisthorpe, Senttisham and Heacham were also flooded, while 6,000 acres were inundated between Setchey and Runcton Holme.

While it was too early to forecast the impact on the wheat crop, it was likely to have been "severely damaged".

James Christie, secretary of the Norfolk branch of the National Farmers' Union, told the EDP: "It is impossible yet to form any accurate estimate of the extent of the damage which Norfolk farmers have suffered but it is clear that it is a major disaster."

Workers battle to repair a breach in the floodbank at Magdalen, near King's Lynn (Image: Newsquest)

Aerial view

An EDP reporter and photographer took to the air in a twin-engined aircraft the day after the floods.

Sheets of water stretched a mile or more inland around Hunstanton, Wells and Salthouse, which looked from the air "as if it had been hit by high explosive".

Along the coastline telegraph poles sticking out of the water showed where roads once ran.

Looking inland towards Wells along Beach Road, where the sea broke through defences (Image: Newsquest)

Between Burnham Market and Wells, several square miles of countryside lay underwater. 

Parts of Hunstanton remained an inland lake, while much of South and West Lynn remained underwater.

West Lynn seen from the air (Image: Newsquest)