ëA tidal wave was coming towards meí

Engulfed by sea, small coastal towns remained marooned until the breached sea defences could be rebuilt.

A HOSPITAL appointment for a bad back took garage owner Don McEwan out of Sutton on Sea on the morning of the flood.

Donís mother had gone along for the ride and it had been a pleasant trip. But coming back from his appointment in Peterborough, Don soon realised all was not well...

Said Don said: "I couldnít believe my eyes when we got to Boston.

"Coming along the river side, water was on the road and I remember thinking it was a bit strange. It was dark by the time we got back into Sutton and as I looked up the road I couldnít make out what it was coming towards me.

"Then I realised it was a tidal wave."

Soon the whole car was engulfed by sea water and the engine cut out.

Managing to get his old Ford 8 mobile once more, all in gale force, icy winds and total darkness, Don got his mother to safety and then headed for Mr Thorndykeís farm house at Hanna. Once there he borrowed a pair of wading boots.

But the water came over the top and, with a few twinges from his aching back, Don set off for home with a couple of gallons of water down his boots and still battling the surging tide. Concerned for his wife and two children, Don gritted his teeth and ploughed on.

At Hagnaby junction, at around 8pm, an Army lorry stopped and out jumped Basil Drakes who brought the news Sutton on Sea was flooded out and being evacuated.

Don climbed aboard to give a hand. He recalled: "The lorry stopped in the High Street and Peter Gask came running up and said an old lady was trapped in her bungalow on Hillside Avenue.

"We heard a feeble voice saying Iím in here.

"Sand had come through the windows and doors, under her bed and lifted it, with her still in it, up to the ceiling, she was trapped.

"She was a big woman and there wasnít much room to maneuver her in. I had to carry her on my back to the High Street to safety.

"I went to help out at other houses but was still worried about my own family and started wading back to the station. I went past my parentsí house and they called out they were OK.

"I started to walk along Station road, the water was waist high but when I got to the vicarage I started to come out of the water and couldnít understand why.

"Then all of a sudden I went face down into the water and found I had been walking on top of a beach hut roof. Several times I thought I might die.

"Eventually I managed to empty the waders by lying on my back on the station platform and lifting my legs in the air."

By following a submerged fence, Don managed to get to his house where he found his wife and two children, Robert and Sandra, on top of the wardrobe. It was now 7am and Don had been in freezing sea water for more than 12 hours.

He said: "the sea water had put the fire out but, not realising, my wife ran a bath for me. My body temperature was so low I didnít notice the bath water was stone cold."

Like many families, the McEwans were faced with more trauma after the sea waters subsided.

"You canít imagine the devastation when the waters subsided.

"Whole slabs of sea defence just lifted over and into peopleís gardens.

"There was sand everywhere."

The sea water had infiltrated Donís fuel tanks and the future of his family business W D McEwan Ltd hung in the balance. But watching Army trucks and lorries back and forth in the clear-up gave Don an idea.

He said: "I got on the phone to the petrol company, Regent Oil, and asked them to deliver 500 gallons of petrol and 300 gallons of diesel. They laughed and said whatís wrong with the tanker?

"I told them we hadnít any tanks to put it in because they were all full of water."

The next morning the order arrived and Don put up a sign saying petrol and diesel for sale. He supplied all the lorries and gradually got back on his feet again.

Don recalled: "There were 80 lorries in and out daily and I sold more diesel and petrol (200,000 gallons of fuel) in that year than I ever sold."

How one family made a miraculous escape to safety on the back of a milk float

IT was nothing short of miracle the entire Codd family escaped unscathed from the Great Flood.

With nine children and one on the way, Fred Codd was faced with quite a challenge when the sea burst through the door of their home...

It was bath night in the Codd household that Saturday and, like many houses in Mablethorpe in the 1950s, there was no bathroom. The tin tub was brought down and steamed in front of the fire, one of the Codd infants immersed in suds.

But, as for countless others, the normality of Saturday evening was shattered. At the time of the 1953 flood, Fred Codd was employed by the Co-op dairy and knew the perfect way to get his family to safety. He said: "I went quickly and collected one of the milk floats.

"Water was coming in the front door and I can still remember a Christmas tree floating by. We piled some of the children on to the float and I managed to get them to a friendís house in Waterloo Road, but our sons Barrie and Tony were missing."

Tony was 13 and had been out on a paper round, but thankfully someone found him and kept him safe.

Both Tony and Barrie joined the family later. Fred said: "We had to stay with our friends for some time, with 15 of us in one room. "I recall all we had to eat were boiled eggs and we fished out the window for coal floating by to keep the fire going."

For many hours, all they could do was listen to the wind outside and radio broadcasts for news of friends and the rest of their small community.

Fifty years on, the older Codd children still experience dreams of the night their home flooded, although they remember none of the fear which must have engulfed their parents. Fredís daughter Elaine Lorrimer, who still lives in Mablethorpe, recalled her parentsí tremendous courage.

She said: "None of us remember feeling afraid, although we must have been surrounded by panic at the time.

"Our parents were marvellous and kept very calm under the circumstances."

Debris littered the streets in flood-torn resorts.

Army lorries became a familiar sight at Sutton on Sea.

Curtains flap through broken windows and part of a roof still lies on the ground in Victoria Road, Mablethorpe.

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