The weekly Skegness Standard has published the first of three eight-page pull-out specials to mark the 50th anniversary of the devastating east coast floods that changed the face of Lincolnshire.

Long-forgotten by people outside the area, the floods were whipped up by 90mph winds from the North Sea and caused many fatalities.

Families lost all they had as the sea moved two miles inland, flattening sandhills, shops and businesses at the popular resorts of Skegness and Mablethorpe, and along much of the east coast of England.

Thousands of tons of sand were washed inland as freak weather conditions combined on the fateful Saturday night.

The Standard’s The Great Flood looks back at the devastation wreaked during the disaster, and is also featured in the Horncastle News, Market Rasen Mail, and the Leader series.

The anniversary is on January 31 but the first supplement is already on the streets and more will follow on January 29 and February 5.

They are packed with photographs – some previously unpublished, and memories from 1953, with stories written by Mablethorpe Leader reporter Janet Allinson.

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