LEN Woolley was on night shift unloading pulp and logs at Ridham Dock when the floods came.

"The warnings went out and we were barely clear when we heard a tremendous crack as the edge of the dock gave way and a crane was derailed.

"We made it as far as the ferry bridge then walked along the sea wall to Rushenden."

When he finally arrived at Sheerness the town was under water. "But miraculously, my parents' home at the top end of Wood Street had escaped the flood water.

"I was also lucky that my home, right in the middle of Berridge Road, was dry. My fiancee Maureen and I had been working on the house for months prior to our wedding in April and we had feared the worst."