The Longest Night
主播大秀
TWO, Thursday 30 January 2003, 7.30 - 8.00pm
The
1953 East Coast floods were the worst peacetime disaster in Britain
during the 20th Century.
They
left over 300 people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless
along the coast, from Lincolnshire down to Essex.
31
January was the night, according to survivors, that the sea went
mad.
To
mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster, The Longest Night tells
the story of that terrible night hour-by-hour through the eyes of
rescuers and those they rescued in some of the worst affected communities
as the storm swept down the coast.
It
is a story of high drama, horror and heroes, and of courage and
terrible calamity.
At
the centre of the storm was a young American airman Reis Leming.
Single-handed, in pitch darkness and battling against raging seas
and hurricane-force winds, he rescued 27 people in the Norfolk seaside
town of Hunstanton. His bravery won him the George Medal, the first
American ever to receive it.
Fifty
years later Reis makes an emotional return to Hunstanton and the
scene of his unforgettable bravery to recount the events that almost
cost him his life. "I was resigned to dying, I realised that
I was probably not going to survive", he says.
There
are many other stories of extraordinary bravery and courage:
The
modest fireman who saved the lives of 25 people and in his fire
report simply described the weather conditions as "wet."
He too won the George Medal.
The
19 year old who sacrificed his life in a valiant and vain attempt
to save his neighbours.
The
couple who swam for their lives through the torrents of water clutching
their babies and watching helplessly as their neighbours died around
them.
All
were caught up in what the meteorologists now call "the perfect
storm" as an unremarkable weather depression transformed into
a ferocious tempest that sent a wall of water down the East Coast,
overwhelming defences and the unsuspecting communities in its path.
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