Aldi store in West Street Deal re-opens after heavy rain damaged ceiling
11:33, 29 August 2020
updated: 11:35, 29 August 2020
A supermarket which saw shoppers evacuated, as ceiling tiles plunged and rain poured through the roof, has reopened.
Heavy rain in Deal yesterday caused chaos at Aldi when water came through to the shop floor and parts of the ceiling crashed to the ground.
The bad weather struck at around 3pm yesterday, when around 30 people were shopping .
Staff tried to contain the water with buckets before shouting for people to leave.
The new shop in West Street was constructed last year and opened in November.
An Aldi spokesman said today: "We can confirm the store reopened this morning at 8am."
A 60-year-old shopper who spoke to KentOnline yesterday said tiles were dropping in several places but the majority were at the front of the store as people were queuing at the tills.
She said: "Somebody shouted out, 'We've got to close the shop, the ceiling's leaking.'
"So they rushed us all to the tills to pay for our shopping.
"As we were at the tills, the tiles just started dropping one by one.
"The rain was just pouring through.
"They're very light, soft tiles. There wasn't much noise created. The main noise was from the rain. The hailstones were unbelievable.
"But it was very frightening. I was shaking so I just got out."
Yesterday an Aldi representative said: “We have temporarily closed our store in Deal, due to storm damage. The store was safely evacuated."
