DARING care home staff braved falling bricks from a roof blown off in high winds to get elderly residents to safety, during one of the worst storms a seaside town has seen.

The roof was torn from properties on Marine Parade, in Saltburn, East Cleveland during high winds in the early hours of Saturday morning, crashing into people's back yards, damaging their cars, and on to the street below.

Homes in the surrounding streets had to be evacuated in the early hours - and all 15 staff turned out at 4am to help rescue the 25 residents of Sea View care home, which is next door to the properties that lost their roofs.

Care home owner Heather Garcia paid tribute to the bravery of her staff and told The Northern Echo: "It was like a war zone.

"All the staff insisted on coming in and said 'we are going in to help the residents and we don't care if we get a brick on our head'.

"We carried the residents out of a side door, where it was safer, and into a waiting minibus.

"The weather was absolutely wild - I have never known wind like it. I could hardly stand up.

"There were bricks and things flying off that roof and we had to run a gauntlet to get into the home.

"The emergency services were amazing and helped us go in and helped us carry the residents out.

"They thought it was really exciting. They were all saying they'd lived through the war so it was nothing compared to that."

The care home was safe except for a large wooden stake which blew off next door's roof and through the ceiling of the staff kitchen - after all the residents had been evacuated. No-one was hurt.

The elderly residents of the home are being temporarily housed at a nearby care home, Greta Cottage, until the building which lost its roof is declared structurally safe. That is expected to be tomorrow (MONDAY).

One nearby resident said: "The roof blew off the building and into my back yard.

"I was at work when it happened, but I got phone calls from the people living in the flats that lost their roof. They were terrified.

"One of them is a gentleman in his 70s and he has a huge hole in the ceiling of his flat - you can see the sky. He is devastated."

Part of Marine Parade and Amber Street were still closed off on Sunday, with police making sure no-one got too close to the damaged building.

Ben Blackburn, of AAA Roofing, was called out to check the care home but said no work could be carried out, other than erecting low-level scaffolding, until a structural engineer checks the damaged building next door at 9am on Monday morning.

Julie Williams, who lives above the nearby Marine pub, said: "The noise of the wind was overpowering. I was worried about our building because it is old too. We did have some damage but nothing major.

"I didn't hear the roof blow off the flats but the wind was so loud I don't think I would have done. The first I knew something had happened was when I heard the police and fire sirens."