WE’VE all experienced some unpleasant weather over the last couple of weeks but it’s been nothing compared to what struck residents of East Lothian 50 years ago when the after-effects of Hurricane Queenie tore across the county.

The storm reached the west coast of Scotland on January 15, 1968, bringing winds of up to 172 mph.

By the time it arrived in East Lothian it had already claimed 20 lives, including nine in Glasgow, where the city was plunged into darkness as electricity was lost.

It touched down at night in the county, bringing 100 mph winds which left few houses unscathed and roads, rail, telephone and electrical services disrupted.

In a report in The Haddingtonshire Courier on January 19 of the devastation caused by the hurricane, it was revealed that at the height of the storm a Cockenzie housewife was lucky to escape with her life after a chimney stack crashed through her bedroom ceiling.

While in North Berwick, 60 caravans at Gilsland were reduced to matchwood, with some carried as far as 30 yards from their pitches.

Almost every road in the county was blocked by fallen trees and Haddington faced being completely cut off as all routes in and out of the town were hit.

Council officials gave an early estimation of the cost of repairs coming to £50,000 – more than £600,000 in today’s money.

In Cockenzie, Mrs Wilhelmina Ross gave the Courier an account of what happened when the chimney fell through her bedroom ceiling at her first-floor home in Whin Park.

She said: “I heard a tremendous crash and awoke to find the room full of dust.

“I ran out of the house in my nightdress and went to my neighbour, Mrs Ritchie, downstairs. I was absolutely terrified.”

Mrs Ross added: “I was very lucky to escape. The chimney stack landed only a couple of feet from my bed. I could have been killed.”

A Gifford family suffered a night to remember at the hands of Hurricane Queenie.

The Kerr family revealed they were asleep in their prefabricated council house on Park Crescent when the outer covering of the gable collapsed, landing on top of Mr Kerr’s car.

He told the Courier: “We thought the house was coming down about us.”

At Gilsland, where caravans were kept by people living all over Scotland, proprietor Mr J McNair faced the difficult task of telling the owners their vans were gone.

He said: “Never have I seen such destruction. There were 120 caravans standing here last night. This morning 60 of them were written off. My own fleet is almost entirely destroyed.

“This is a tragedy for most of the owners, whose caravans were their pride and joy.”

Farms across the county were also badly hit, with outbuildings suffering lost roofs and fencing torn up.

At Newtonhall Farm, Gifford, came the only report of a fatality in East Lothian. . . when a cow was killed after it was trapped in the branches of a fallen tree.

A number of local companies sent workers home as electricity supplies failed.

Country roads surveyor Mr H.W. Rankine told the Courier: “It was without doubt the worst emergency I have had to cope with since I came to East Lothian, apart from the heavy snowfall of 1963.”