HURRICANE-FORCE winds battered Tendring’s coast 27 years ago leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Trees were torn up, caravans were smashed and roofs were ripped off houses in the early hours of October 16 1987.

At its height, the winds reached more than 110mph.

Some homes in Harwich and Manningtree were left without power for eight days and around 2,000 Tendring Council homes were damaged, costing £200,000 to repair.

Warner’s holiday camp, which saw filming on Hi-dei-hi! was devastated by the high winds with 50 trees brought down and £90,000 of damage to chalets. Ten had to be replaced.

In Manningtree firefighters were called out 37 times in 48 hours to hurricane related incidents while Mistley’s war memorial was destroyed after a tree fell on it.