A Cardiff family have recalled their lucky escape after Storm Franklin sent a massive tree crashing through their living room.
Antony Manstead had just sat down with his wife and daughter on Sunday evening at around 5pm when high winds caused a large tree to fall onto his three-storey house on Cathedral Road, Cardiff.
The incident sent branches smashing through the windows of his living room just feet away from where he and his family were sitting.
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"It was absolutely crazy," he told WalesOnline on Monday. "We were sitting in the living room at the front of the house and we heard this massive bang.
"We didn't see it happen but we heard it happen. There was a lot of flying glass but it didn't actually cut anyone. There were branches sticking through that [main living room] window, and two others."
All of Wales was covered by a yellow weather warning until 1pm on Monday, February 21, as Storm Franklin caused widespread disruption, with winds of up to 75mph being forecast. You can see the latest updates on that here.
Antony said his family were initially in shock but said it could have been a lot worse had the tree fallen just a few minutes earlier.
"[At first] it was just 'God, what's happened?' but it was fairly obvious what had happened, so it just became 'who do we phone first'.
"Ten minutes before, I'd been re-hanging curtains in the bay window, and had been up on a stepladder. I'd just sat down and had a cup of tea.
"I don't want to think about what would've happened had it been ten minutes earlier."
A shocked Antony was worried about rain getting into the house due to the smashed windows and called his builder who came "quite quickly" to board them up.
"Fortunately he was able to come around at short notice. But the insurance and everything, that's going to take a long time.
"They're coming today [Monday] but actually getting it sorted is going to be weeks or months."
As well as shattering several of the house's windows on multiple floors, the tree has also damaged the outside masonry and piping and caused some roof slates to come loose.
Unfortunately, it has also smashed several of the sash windows Antony had recently paid to draft-proof at the property, where he has lived since 2018.
"I texted my builder this morning to tell him unfortunately all his good work had been undone by a tree," he said.
"Somebody told me yesterday the opposite neighbour had seen the tree sway during the day. We hadn't particularly noticed. We thought the main issue was Friday with the red alert and that the main danger had passed - but apparently not."
Antony said emergency services came on the scene "very quickly" and that the family was told they could stay in their home without danger.
"The police were here very quickly, I have to say. Apparently they were driving down the road and saw what happened and stopped. And then the next thing the fire engine was here, they were trying to assess the damage.
"They said to keep away from the front of the house and avoid the rooms at the front."
He added that workers from Cardiff Council had been on hand on Monday morning to remove more debris from the front of the house where the tree had fallen.
"It could have been worse. That's the only way to think about it I guess. It's a bit difficult to try and see the silver lining in this particular cloud, but anyway. It's true - it could have been worse."
A spokeswoman for the fire service said on Sunday: "The call came into us at 4.50pm, and we sent one fire engine to the scene.
"We handed the incident over to the police, and the occupier of one of the properties (that the tree collided with) was told to await arrival of a structural engineer and stay at the rear of the property."
South Wales Police have been contacted for comment.
Storm Franklin also caused damage down the road on Sunday, with a number of trees seen partially blown down in Llandaff Fields on Monday morning. The nearby CafeCastan in the park was unaffected.
Wales is still coping with the aftermath of Storm Eunice, which saw winds of over 100mph batter the country and cause widespread damage to homes, schools, shops and other buildings over the weekend.
The storm caused all rail services in Wales to be cancelled on Friday and around 13,000 left without power at the weekend as clean-up efforts continue.
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