The Great Storm - 25 Years Ago Tonight

[Claude Dreyfus]

It was 25 years ago tonight that a rather large storm hit the south of England. As a 9 year old at the time I recall the sounds of the house creaking in the wine, the noise of the wind itself and the smashing of the trees in Petworth Park...opposite where I lived. Our village was cut off for a couple of days, but we still had power. I don't know how he thought of it the day before, but my Dad was the secretary of the local railway club, who's power was provided by a generator. He 'borrowed' the generator the day before...and we were the only house in the village with light and heat!

Aside from that, the clear up brought the village together...funny how adversity does that...

Anyone else have memories/stories of that night a quarter of a century ago?

[Calnefoxile]

Oh god yes, I was posted at RAF Stornoway and the next day we had a recorded wind speed on the airfield of 125mph.

We were all confined to the accomodation block, which was a real shame as it housed the bar  so we did what any good serviceman would do in such adversity.... We opened the bar  and played snooker.

It was whilst doing this, that we noticed a BT Van passing the end of the airfield, it then just suddenly appeared to leap up and throw itself over the fence. So we rushed out to it, rescued the poor BT man (whom we all knew anyway) bought him back to the block and poured whisky down his neck, surprisingly he was most grateful, couldn't possibly think why 

Regards

Neal.

[Sprintex]

Yep, I was one of the few people that slept right through it completely unaware! 

Driving to work next morning, still a bit breezy like, kept seeing bits of tree and fence panels in the road and thought "blimey, must have been windy out last night  Then the newscaster on the radio said that police were advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary, so I turned around and went home again 


Paul

PS: I've also slept through having two large booted coppers walk through my bedroom when my brother thought he saw an intruder in our back garden. And once I fell out of bed without waking up too, my mum said she heard a "THUD" in the night. I don't so much got to sleep at night, more die for 7 or 8 hours 

[Oldman]

Remember it well.
Was working for a local tool hire company and we all got called in to make sure every one of our 30 chainsaws were working properly and sorting out loads of spare chains.

[Trainfish]

I was with you on that night Sprintex. Well, not literally with you but a workmate and I were staying in a caravan on a farm near Silverstone where we were working at the time and we slept right through it. First we knew was all the trees which had come down in the field next door. Of course the fact that we slept through it had absolutely nothing to do with the ale which we had supped or those cigarettes which tasted a bit funny.

When I were a lad we lived on the 10th floor of a block of flats in Hong Kong, 135 Boundary Street, I remember it well. Anyway, a typhoon came through one night and we got the eye of it. Guess who slept through it and awoke to tropical fish swimming around the bed? Ok, no need to guess.

And finally there was the night of May 4th this year when I slept right through falling down the stairs breaking 5 ribs, attention from the paramedic and eventually woke up in the ambulance. I too go to bed to sleep. And walk.

[EtchedPixels]

Gah thank you for making me feel old  :'(

[Fratton]

i was 6 and in scotland cant say i noticed it 

was do remember when i next visited my grandmas in reigate to find loads of the tree's fallen!

[H]

Yep, remember it well; "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way; well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't"

There wasn't a house in my road that wasn't damaged. I only lost some tiles but the one on the corner had the end gable completely blown out. Power was out and phone lines down. Couldn't drive to work as there were tress down at each end of the road and the A22 had dozens across it. One road in the town was still closed a year later as the loss of trees had made the side bank unsafe. SE England lost over ten million trees that night yet currently the amount of woodland in the UK is at its highest ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

H.

[swisstony]

I remember the house losing some of the ridge tiles and me and my dad having to put up a new fence.....

[scotsoft]

I remember the house losing some of the ridge tiles and me and my dad having to put up a new fence.....

Would it not have been better to replace the ridge tiles?     

[swisstony]

[Portpatrick]

We came off relatively lightly in Watford. But I am another who slept through most of it.  I vaguely recall being awake briefly in the small hours and thinking it sounded turbulent out there.  But woke up next morning to the news of chaos.  There were a lot of branches, fences etc down when I walked to Watford Jcn to go to work - and when I walked directly back as there were no trains!

So a day off, with one daughter off from school sick, and we started our search for a replacement car a day earlier than planned.

Our own fences remained upright, just, though one of the apple trees was at a funny angle and needed propping up.  It died later the next year.

And I missed poor Michael Fish's famous forecast.

[Greybeema]

Slept through it.  Alarm at 6.30.  Noted power cut but got ready for work anyway. 

Got into car to drive to work.  Had I turned left the road was blocked by a tree but I turned right and drove to the A2.  Crap radio in my Metro so I didn't turn it on until Dartford - I had noticed though that A2 was quiet and it was a bit windy.  Assumed that Medway Bridge was closed because of the wind. 

Turned on radio at Dartford and realised I was still in a power cut zone (no lights).  Radio rabbiting on about some storm or other. 

Thought it a bit stange the way that Luton bodied Transit was balanced on the barrier in the middle of the A2.  Was also a little alarmed by the way I had to weave through the portacabin site huts that were scattered across the carriageway.

Only real travelling issue was when reaching the Old Kent Road I had to circumnavigate a tree which had also ripped up a watermain and flooded the road - not good in a Metro but waded through and kept going - must have been a bit windy in London too...

Got to expensive car park near work then walked down the road into work....

Got strange phone call from Boss asking me what I was doing there - "I work here".....

So that was my storm - Getting home was much worse...

[Lawrence]

Oh god yes, I was posted at RAF Stornoway and the next day we had a recorded wind speed on the airfield of 125mph.

We were all confined to the accomodation block, which was a real shame as it housed the bar  so we did what any good serviceman would do in such adversity.... We opened the bar  and played snooker.

Neal.

Ah a quiet day on Stornoway then, could've been worse, they might have sent you to Saxa Vord!

Has a power cut during a sess in the bar at Bruggen, so we all went back to the block (everyone had a crate or two under their bunks back then) and we all got quietly smashed listening to one of the lads playing his trumpet.  Wonder if he ever perfected that triple tonguing technique 

[Kipper]

Living in Surrey at the time, just outside Guildford. Woke me up and I stood looking out of the window, watching dustbin lids flying like frisbees, trees bent double (without breaking), and also felt the house moving. As the house was one of those concrete framed council houses, I was looking forward to being re-homed in a brick one, but surprisingly, it survived!
Next day found the village isolated from the rest of the world, till the local farmers got busy with their chain saws.  My aunt was cut off, with no leccy for 2 weeks. The leccy board had to be helped out by engineers from other parts of the country - great for leccy board van livery spotters (if any existed then - or now).