A horrified tenant returned from work to find “half her house was missing” after a lorry driver brought down a power cable.

Debbie Garnham, 71, is now waiting for builders to carry out repairs following the incident in St Michaels near Tenterden.

The lorry driver caught the power line attached to the house in Shoreham Lane just before 4pm yesterday, causing some of its cladding to fall off.

Mrs Garnham came home from her accountancy job in Charing at 5.30pm and discovered the area cordoned off so at first couldn’t get to her house.

But she identified herself to police as the tenant and was escorted past the cordon to her home by an officer.

Mrs Garnham said: “It was surreal. I was shocked to see half of my house missing. I thought what’s gone on here?”

“Apparently a truck with a large load of hay caught the electric cable and took it for a ride down the road - and some of my house.

“It was dangerous because there was still a live cable lying on the road until the power was turned off.”

Nobody was hurt in the accident and the five cats Mrs Garnham owns were stressed by the drama but not harmed.

The damage was confined to the cladding and some guttering and a corner pillar, but the black waterproofing was also left exposed.

Mrs Garnham is liaising with the house owner over the accident and the arrangement of repairs.

She is able to stay in the house overnight but said: “If it rains, water could get into the walls, but hopefully we won’t get much rain between now and something covering the wall.”

UK Power Networks engineers were called to the scene at 4.15pm.

A spokesman said: “Our team made the equipment safe and carried out repairs to restore the supply by 7.55pm."

Police and the fire service were also called to the scene.

The house dates back to the early 19th century and was built on a cherry orchard. In its original form it was a storehouse for the orchard.