THE County Press has spoken to residents on Arctic Road, Cowes ­— to gauge the full extent of the damage left in the tornado's wake.

In the early hours of this morning (Thursday), Cowes was struck by almighty gusts of wind, thought to be a small tornado ­— damaging property on Artic Road and the surrounding area.

"It happened at about 4am," said Gozole Dundar Tunale, whose home neighbours a property that had tiling stripped from its roof.

"I heard a very strong wind, and then crashes.

"It was so loud, and you could feel it ­— in the house ­— it was really scary.

"Normally, in strong wind, the bins tip, but this time they really went.

"In the morning, you could see all the pieces of debris in the street, and in the gardens.

"I'm so glad it didn't happen in the day ­— someone could've been struck."

Neighbour, Shaun Turner, spoke of how a boat which had been stored on a shed roof had been taken by the wind and crashed into a nearby garden.

"It was only a little tender boat, but the force of that wind was something else.

"I just heard this almighty bang. We've lost a bunch of guttering, and the wind blew our water butt right across the garden.

"Another one of our neighbours had her Mercedes hit really bad by debris, and she couldn't even get into it, the wind was so strong ­— it kept blowing her door shut.

"Last week, we lost one of our slates to hurricane Ciara, and we've just had it fixed.

"The flap on our fireplace blew out, and now it's somewhere in the chimney stack.

"My car had a piece of slate wedge into it, so I'm going to move it before Saturday.

"The slates were all over the road, so I swept them all out. They were really sharp, so they'd probably puncture the cars."