Storm Darragh in Warwickshire: Fallen trees, serious injuries, a damaged ambulance and destruction at cat rescue charity

STORM Darragh caused injuries and damage as the winds battered Warwickshire over the weekend.

West Midlands Ambulance service said on Saturday a man suffered serious injuries in Warwick’s Myton Gardens after being hit by a falling tree, while three people were trapped under a tree in Portland Place West in Leamington.

Two of the three - a woman and child - managed to get free while the third person, a man, was rescued by fire crews and taken to hospital.

The ambulance service said today (Monday) he was in a critical condition with serious injuries and was given advanced trauma care at the scene before being taken to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.

Over in Welford an ambulance responding to a 999 call was hit by a falling branch on Saturday night. Its windscreen was cracked, but no one was uninjured. A second ambulance was assigned to the 999 call whilst the crew returned to base to swap vehicles.

Also in Welford, part of a tree fell onto a pen at Avon Cat Rescue.

The wooden pen was home to five cats - none of whom were injured (although two were missing) - and has left the charity facing a large bill to replace the pen and remove the rest of the tree.

The charity launched an online fundraising appeal and, amazingly, has already received more than £11,000.

A Facebook statement said: “We have had a disaster during the storm.

“We are most grateful that nobody was hurt, but we will need to repair the damage. Fundraising will need to be planned. Please support us if you can.”

To make a donation visit www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064322454203

Warwickshire Police said on Saturday, at the height of Storm Darragh, its control room fielded more calls than on any New Year’s Eve for the past ten years.

A spokesperson said: “In total, we received 671 calls on Saturday, and Sunday was also saw a high volume of calls as us and our partners mopped up after the storm. This, coupled with an ongoing search for missing person John in Kenilworth, meant that we have all seen an extremely busy weekend.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for acting on our safety messages about travel and inaccessible roads, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who offered their help to remove fallen trees and to assist with the search for John.

“Thanks also to all of our call handlers for working extremely hard on long shifts to ensure that every call that came in received an appropriate response.”