Skegness Magazine

Source: Skegness Standard 15th July 1931

170 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER FALL ON THE URBAN DISTRICT

LUMLEY ROAD A RAGING RIVER

CRICKET GROUND AND MOTOR PARKS INUNDATED

EXTENSIVE FLOODS IN MANY PARTS OF THE TOWN

BOATING LAKE FLAGSTAFF STRUCK

Skegness experienced the worst summer thunderstorm within living memory last Sunday afternoon when torrential rain, accompanied by vivid lightning and heavy thunder, fell for about forty minutes.
Though the town as a whole escaped, the more destructive features of the storm, extensive flooding occurred in the principal streets and the low lying areas.
The main storm commenced about 4.50 p.m. lasting until 5.30.

Fine conditions were then experienced until just after 10 p.m., when a second storm of even greater intensity lasted for five minutes.
Lumley Road resembled a rapid river, a foaming torrent flowing from the Clock Tower to the lower level of Lumley Square. Property on the south side was inundated on the ground floors, cellars were flooded, those of the Lion Hotel to the depth of several feet.
Coincident with a vivid flash of lightning, the Jolly Fisherman replica was hurled bodily from the truck of the flagstaff near to Princes Parade.
It is reported that a thunderbolt struck a garden in Alexandra Road, making a cavity over six feet deep.
The Cricket Ground and the Council’s Motor Park on the Grand Parade resembled lakes. Butlin’s amusement park was flooded to a depth of several inches.
It is estimated that more than 170 million gallons of water (over three-quarters of a million tons) fell within the Skegness Urban District during the two storms, and during the shorter and more intense storm at 10 p.m., the fall was at the rate of over six million gallons per minute.
Serious damage occurred in the country districts between Skegness and Lincoln. Houses were struck by lightning one being get on fire, chicken houses and huts were demolished, and beasts and poultry killed.
Telephonic and telegraphic communications between Skegness and the Midlands were severed through the uprooting of telegraph poles. Motor buses had to be diverted to by-roads owing to the main roads being blocked by taller trees.