Carole Peck (Nee Disney)
Memories of a 12 year old in the Canvey Island Floods 1953 - Part 4

"The army Lorries were waiting to evacuate us across the Island to a school in Benfleet on the Mainland. My Dad had other ideas. We changed to a bus half way across the Island and sat upstairs where we had a good view. We saw cars which were almost covered by the sea, bungalows submerged, sheep and rabbits huddled together on the slightly raised pieces of farmland. The rabbits had been driven out of their burrows by the water. The bus had to stop at the level crossing gates at Benfleet, so we jumped off and caught a train and bus to my Maternal Grandparent's house in East Barnet."

Girls Life Brigade - Carole is 2nd from the right

"It was all in the news about the floods at Canvey. It was the neap spring tides together with extra high winds which had caused the freak level of the sea. Many people had died. My grandparents had to be taken down their road by rowing boat. We were so lucky."