Man recalls ‘devastating’ moment Storm Darragh ripped son’s pre-school apart

A man who watched his three-year-old son’s pre-school get torn apart by strong winds from Storm Darragh in rural west Wales has described the experience as “devastating”.

Brett Stones, 45, looked on in horror as the roof of the Cylch Meithrin in New Quay, Ceredigion, detached and blew away on Saturday afternoon.

The area fell within the rare red warning for wind that was issued by the Met Office for the storm.

The forecaster warned ahead of the storm that there could be damage to buildings and homes, and flying debris caused by the powerful gusts.

‘Everything went nuts’

Mr Stones said the strong winds started in New Quay around 2am on Saturday before “everything went nuts” at around 1pm.

He told the PA news agency: “I’ve got dozens of trees down and fences and tiles, so instead of watching it all go wrong we went into the house. Then the power went out at about 2pm, so we were just sat around the kitchen table looking at each other.

“There was a big creaking noise from out the back of the house – the school is about 50m from my house – and a piece of fluffy insulation came into the garden.

“We ran upstairs to the window just as the roof peeled off and flew into the tennis courts.”

Mr Stones, owner of a local dolphin watching boat trip company, said bits of insulation from the roof ended up a mile and a half away.

Destroyed

He continued: “The roof is obviously destroyed and it has been too windy to get inside to assess the extent of the damage, but it’s likely that water damage will have ruined everything inside as there was torrential rain all day yesterday.

“We will find out more tomorrow.”

Mr Stones has set up a GoFundMe page to fundraise for repairs to the pre-school, which had received more than £4,100 in donations as of Sunday evening.

He said he felt compelled to act after seeing the reaction of his son, Remy, to the incident.

“Watching my son crying because his school was being smeared across the town by the storm was heartbreaking,” Mr Stones said.

Devastating 

“I knew then how devastating it was going to be for the community, so we had to do something. They’ve all been looking forward to the Christmas party and they’ve been working so hard towards it.

“The knock-on effects are huge as well – there’s not many jobs in this area, so the parents really rely on the school to look after these kids so that they can go out and earn. Without this facility these parents are really going to struggle.

“The faster we can get this place rebuilt the better for so many people.”

You can contribute to the fundraiser here.