WILMSLOW was brought to a standstill as gale force winds ravaged the town and surrounding areas last week.

As the worst storms in 17 years hit the area last Thursday, January 18, falling trees blocked roads and brought down power cables.

A 40-year old escaped injury when a tree fell on her car as she drove along the A34 in Nether Alderley and a woman was trapped after a tree fell on her vehicle on Alderley Road near Fulshaw Park and blocked the road.

Eyewitness Peter Taylor said: "The police and fire brigade arrived and shut the road.

"The car was under the tree and at a 90 degree angle to the road, so it must have spun round when the tree hit it and it totally covered the car.

"She was cut out by Macclesfield Borough Council who had chainsaws to cut away the tree to get her out."

Fortunately there were no fatalities, but the emergency services and highways agency were inundated with calls throughout the day.

Cheshire Police computers crashed under the weight of phone calls received.

The constabulary control room took more than 1,000 999 calls and 2,500 non-emergency calls while the force switchboard took 3,783 calls with the call handling team logging almost 2,100 incidents - 1,000 more than the daily average.

The rush of calls was matched by demand on the ground as officers on patrol were called to hundreds of incidents with 401 reported in east Cheshire alone.

The serious weather conditions gave the North West Ambulance Service one of its busiest days ever.

In Cheshire, demand for ambulance services increased by 260 per cent during the peak hours of the storm.

Crews dealt with patients suffering from head injuries, lacerations and bruising caused by people falling over, collapsed roofing and scaffolding and falling trees.

The service recorded 46 incidents across the county, two of which tragically proved fatal.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service received 424 emergency calls in a five hour period, a number of which were called to incidents in Wilmslow and Handforth.

A hydraulic platform was sent to Curzon Mews in Wilmslow after large sections of the roof blew onto the road and cars.

Residents were instructed to remain inside and as wind speeds topped 50 mph, the fire service said it was too dangerous to commit crews and abandoned attempts to make safe the roof, and cordoned off the area.

Resident Audrey Ramsey said: "We were having lunch and it was like a bomb going off. We heard a bump and looked out out and saw it [the roof] lying across my brand new car.

Mr and Mrs Ramsey commended the fire crews saying: "They were absolutely fantastic and came so quickly.

"They cordoned off the area and also rescued the neighbour's cat, Millie."

CHESHIRE County Council mobilised a 300 strong emergency team to deal with serious problems caused by the 79 mph gales that lashed the county.

'Operation Astraeus' - named after the Greek god of the four winds - involved staff from across the council's services working across the county.

  • An estimated 700 trees and power cables were brought down and the council dealt with more than 2,000 calls from the public.
  • Macclesfield Borough Council staff worked until the early hours of Friday morning assisting county council staff deal with over 40 trees which had fallen across the highways in the district and removing 67 trees which had fallen on council land.
  • Around Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Handforth fallen trees brought chaos to the roads and traffic to a standstill.
  • Sections of Brook Lane and Macclesfield Road in Alderley Edge and Wrigley Lane near Over Alderley and Mottram Road were all blocked by trees.
  • In Alderley Road, Chelford and Rotherwood Road, Wilmslow, falling trees brought down power cables and part of the A34 near Astra Zeneca was closed after a tree fell.
  • Sheep escaped from Mere Farm in Nether Alderley after a fallen tree came down onto the farm's fence.

The farmer retrieved his flock after they wandered onto Chelford Road.

  • In Wilmslow Old Road and by the Bull's Head pub, trees blocked parts of the road and in Carlton Avenue a row of 60 foot pine trees were up-rooted demolishing sheds, greenhouses and destroying landscaped gardens.
  • In the town centre Water Lane was cordoned off as tiles blew off a roof.
  • In Handforth there were tailbacks and road closures when part of the A34 bypass and Clay Lane flooded as the volume of rainfall caused streams and drainage systems to overflow.
  • A 60 foot tree was partially blown over in Woodland Road, and there were fallen trees in several locations near the Precinct.
  • On Stanley Road, a large tree came down close to the school, blocking the carriageway and in Styal, a tree blocked the road by Norcliffe Hall.
  • At Styal Football Club, the roof of the stand was blown off and all games were cancelled as the pitch was left water-logged from the adverse weather.
  • Train services also ground to a halt with Wilmslow train station loosing power in the storm and Network Rail and Virgin cancelling services due to high winds and debris on the line.

Cheshire County Council estimated the clear up operation to remove trees from roads will cost around £150,000.