Family ‘loses everything’ as home tumbles off cliff
A FAMILY home left hanging off the edge of a cliff after a landslide tumbled to the ground below in the early hours of yesterday.
Owner Emma Tullett said: “It’s absolutely heartbreaking – we’ve lost everything.
“This was my dream home which I paid for in cash. We were told we would have about 40 years living here, but we have not even had two.”
“We can get a new house, a new car – but it’s things like baby photos of my children that will all be at the bottom of the cliff now.
“It’s the sentimental things that I can’t get back that make this even worse.”
Refuge
Emma and four children were forced to flee the property on Friday evening after she heard crunching and blinds began falling off the windows.
By Sunday, half of the home had fallen into the sea as the ground continued to give way – along with the family’s orange SEAT Ibiza.
And when she returned yesterday, a swimming pool was all that was left of the £195,000 two-bed bungalow she bought in 2018.
The 42-year-old had her head in her hands as she took refuge in the garden of neighbour Gemma Stanley, 33, for a cup of tea.
She said: “We are all devastated. We left the premises with just the clothes on our backs. My children didn’t even have shoes on. Our lives have been turned upside down by the events of the weekend, events that no one could have foreseen happening so quickly and on such a large scale.
“We are just grateful that we all escaped without harm.”
Emma shared the home, aptly named Cliffhanger, in Eastchurch, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, along with her partner and four of her five children, aged six, seven, 15 and 17.
She added: “I would like to thank the entire community of Sheppey who have been so unbelievably supportive and have rallied round with offers of help.”
Emma, an assistant manager at the Co-op said she noticed bricks in her front garden separating after arriving home from work on Friday afternoon.
Yesterday neighbour Ed Cane, 67, was among 15 people in three other properties told to evacuate as cracks in the earth continued to open up. He said: “I’ve spent the night here on the driveway. I couldn’t sleep but the house went so quietly. I went to check at 4am and it just wasn’t there.”
A Swale Borough Council spokesman said: “Neighbouring properties are currently being inspected to assess the impact of this latest fall, and we are urging people to stay away from the area in case of further collapses.”