The crushed kitchen at Southgrove Terrace after the retaining wall at the rear of the house collapsed on Tuesday. Picture by Robin Crossley.
A VENTNOR family said they were lucky to escape with their lives, after a landslide destroyed their kitchen and left them with nowhere to live this Christmas.
Frances Noctor, 50, was driving her son, Kendal, to work on Tuesday morning, blissfully unaware an 8ft wall at the rear of their Southgrove Terrace home had collapsed in heavy rain and completely crushed their kitchen.
"The wall is a huge structure to just fall down, and it flattened the kitchen like it was a cardboard box. There was mud and bricks everywhere," said photographer Mr Noctor, 21, who was on work experience at the County Press.
"It was so lucky no-one was in there because they would have died. It was a close call because I would usually be in the kitchen at that time, my mum would have been there if she wasn’t giving me a lift.
"Luckily my younger brother, Lawrie, was on the mainland."
The Noctor family have been told it is unsafe to remain in the house while repairs are carried out, likely to take three or four months, and have been forced to stay with friends while they look for temporary accommodation.
"The kitchen will have to be completely demolished and rebuilt, it’s a total write off. The entire kitchen extension has been pulled away from the main part of the house and we have been told the rest of the back wall might come down if there’s more bad weather," said Mr Noctor.
"We will have to find somewhere as soon as possible before Christmas and I hope the insurance will cover rental costs, but I just don’t know where we will go.
"Fingers crossed everything will be all right, and the main thing is everyone is alive and safe."
The landslide, which also damaged neighbouring properties and led to the temporary closure of Southgrove Road, followed a smaller landslip in heavy rain on Sunday.
Stuart Love, director of environment and neighbourhoods at the Isle of Wight Council, said: "We are working with relevant agencies to assess the impact of the landslip and are liaising with the owners of affected properties to ensure their safety."
Mr Noctor said the landslide could have been caused by overflowing drains on the road above the wall, and claimed they were filled with leaves and other debris that should have been cleared out.
"I know Ventnor has problems with slips and slides because it’s on a cliff, but the drains had not been emptying and all this water was just running over them straight on to the earth," he said.
Mr Love, however, said it was too early to determine the cause of the landslide.
Reporter: emilyp@iwcpmail.co.uk