It’s fair to say Whitehill & Bordon residents won’t forget Storm Darragh in a hurry after a weekend of devastation and day-long power cuts.

There were terrifying scenes on Camp Road early last Saturday when gale force winds lifted and scattered the roof of a garage block over the old A325.

Thankfully no-one was around during the early morning incident with a small army of tradespeople and volunteers taking to the road to clean up the debris.

But questions remain about the slow response of authorities to the serious blockage – while one of the volunteers was even knocked over by a thoughtless and impatient motorist who drove through the debris.

People like Dave Crowder, son of the couple who run the Chalet Hill pet store, offered a hand while Samuel Harding of Camberley firm Aqua Design & Landscaping was in the area because of his link with Country Market.

He said: “There were quite a few of us who helped out but, boy, it was so bad as all of the road was covered.

“We just got there, brought out our tools and chainsaws and started cutting it all and started clearing it.

“But there were still people trying to drive though, even though there was pushbikes, rubbish and stuff from people’s garages all over it.

“And as for the authorities – don’t me started as it was ridiculous the time they took to get here. The police didn’t even bother.”

Indeed, anger is growing over the response to the incident while some, having done their bit for the community, then spent the night without power due to multiple outages.

Parts of Whitehill, Bordon and Oakhanger went nearly a day without power after the lights went out in the afternoon, with even longer outages around the likes of Selborne and Worldham being reported.