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The great storm of October 1987


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Posted
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Blizzards,Hot Thundery nights.
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL

I know this is possibly supposed to go in the Storm Enthusiasts group, but seeing with the current Northern storm, I thought here might be more appropriate.

Do you remember the 1987 storm, how was it for you?

Tell, tell :)

Hi Lauren,

It was very exciting but scary for me, i was 14 and lived in Braintree Essex at the time,my mother had gone to London because my Grandmother had passed away (ironic because grandmother was scared of the wind!) so it was just me and the dog at home.Went to the local petrol station at 22:30 with a mate to buy sweets, the weather was very mild,with light rain and just a light breeze.

Fell asleep on the sofa but woke up at midnight to the sound of the wind and rain against the windows,went back to sleep,woke up at 03:00 am to the dog whining,the power going off and on,and the constant roar outside of the wind! could hear tiles falling sheds rolling around outside. Couldn't go back to sleep so in the morning as there was no school we went out and saw hundreds of trees uprooted but some were literally snapped in half,like they had been twisted off halfway up the trunk. A whole line of 5 garage roofs blown off laying 50 metres away in a field! Then we went to town to see roof tiles everywhere,overhead power cables hanging down in the road dancing with blue sparks shooting from the ends .Chimney stacks blown off roofs.Took mum the whole next day to get back from London.

Was a once in a life time experience,and with the snow in January,the flooding in September,it was a great year for weather.

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Posted
  • Location: North Yorks, prev West Essex
  • Location: North Yorks, prev West Essex

We were kept awake all night. No lights and the phone kept ringing with people trying to get hold of relatives and the switchboard not being able to cope I guess.

I did put a radio on but the Guy at Capital was so scared he was scaring my Daughter so I turned it off. [apparently most of their windows were blown in]

I have some fantastic photo's of the debris of the following day. Overturned tree's who's roots were feet taller than my Daughter who was 8 at the time.

Husband was in Jersey at the time and he was told to be back at his Hotel by 10pm as the storm was coming! shame we were not warned!

Still hate high winds, the damage that was done that night was horrific.

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Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside

I wasn't born when this storm hit, by my parents regail the story to me often, so i shall repeat what they told me.

My Mum being a weather nut herself (although not as bad as me!)told my Dad during the day that a big storm was coming and my dad shouldn't go to work. My dad being the typical manly man thought nothing of it and took my brother and sister to work with him near Sevenoaks.

It wasn't until late that warnings were issued and my Dad decided to come back home. So him, my brother and sister were coming home in a Citroen 2CV and getting badly buffeted by the winds and my dad recalls coming over a bridge and fighting with the wheel so he didn't swerve over the lanes. They were very neasrly hit by a lorry that was having the same problem and the lorry very nearly toppled over, which would have been disastrous on that bridge.

They made it home and dad ran around the garden securing stuff. By this point debris had started to be scattered and all the neighbourhood men were out securing stuff whilst the women were all inside filling pots with water in case the supply went out and finding candles in case the power went.

My brother who was 10 at the time was wholly unbothered about the whole thing and went to bed and slept the whole way through. My sister being 7 was quite scared at the time and spent the night with Mum and dad and the 2 cats on the bed. Mum says she remembers listening to the tiles being lifted and to calm my sister down they played a game of guessing how long it would take for a tile to come off once it started rattling. My dad got the video camera out and started filming out the window, but when they viewed the video later all you could see was blackness, so it was a failure. One of the roof tiles smashed through the car windscreen and this was a common theme for our road. Mum went to the toilet and came back to tell them that the huge tree in the garden had blown over and crushed the neighbours shed. They couldn't sleep as the wind kept battering against the windows which was apparently deafening and quite scary as they thought they were going to blow out.

The next morning they surveyed the damage. My brother couldn't believe he had missed the whole thing. There was debris everywhere and the neighbours all helped to cut up the fallen tree and remove it and later all pitched in to help our neighbour rebuild his shed. The cats had a great time playing will all the debris in the garden. School was closed for 2 days because it had no power and several of the windows were blown through which my siblings were delighted about.

The next few days was an effort by the whole street to clear up and rebuild. Back then it was very much a case of doing it yourself. Apparently the community spirit was lovely as everyone who had a skill did their bit. My Dad repaired the cars, the man 4 doors up was a roofer by trade and fixed our rooves, another neighbour had lots of curring equipment to deal with fallen trees.

I would like to think that if something like this happened again, the same sort of community spirit would come out.

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