A COUPLE have told of the moment they were blown off their feet by a mini-tornado while they were on holiday in Jersey.Retired John and Margaret Potter, from Cherry Tree Road, Woodbridge, were on the island for a week to enjoy a cycling holiday.
By John Howard
A COUPLE have told of the moment they were blown off their feet by a mini-tornado while they were on holiday in Jersey.
Retired John and Margaret Potter, from Cherry Tree Road, Woodbridge, were on the island for a week to enjoy a cycling holiday.
The couple, both in their mid 70s, were walking back from Elizabeth Castle by the beach when the twister struck them from behind, dumping them on the sand.
Mrs Potter said: "It was frightening. We were walking back from the castle when we were suddenly lifted up, shot along a bit and thrown down on the sand. I think if we had not been holding on to each other it could have been a lot worse.
"John was lifted up and I just thought he was being funny. It just hit us from the back, we really did not know what was happening. It lifted us up, I did not know how or why at first.
"We really did not know what was happening until we saw it passing along the beach area, along the sand and hitting a café.
"My husband's hat went whirling across the beach, we went after it and went to a café where they made a great fuss of us.''
The couple, who have only just returned to Suffolk from their holiday, were struck by the twister at 12.25pm on Wednesday.
Mr Potter added: "We did not see it coming and then it hit us, pushing us off the hardway and on to the sand, my wife hurt her ankle.
"We saw it whirling away and hit a little restaurant, flags flapping about. This is the only time we have been caught up in one of these, although you do see the little things dashing around in fields sometimes.
"It was just one of those things and nothing too drastic, a little twister, it finished up as a bit of a laugh with people talking about it on the island. It even made a half page in the local paper. But it was all over fairly quickly, ten or 20 seconds.''
It is not the first time a twister has been spotted on Jersey. The couple were told there was another one the previous summer.
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