Memories of 'The Great Storm.'

Where other thread? I didn't find one!

South Downs

Orange sun now disappeared behind some very weird clouds.

The red leaves in the garden are picking the light up and looking luminous.

End of the world is nigh

Driving up from Southampton we noticed that, as well as weird sky, there were no birds flying until we got to the Arundel area. Even in Southampton docks there were only a couple of seagulls - it felt quite eerie! Going through Sussex the sky has suddenly gone strange as well.

Talking about the Great Storm.

We were woken in the early morning and it was so bad that I took the children into the hall as it was the fartherist place from chimnies crashing into the house.

I went into the garden at one point to try to save a fence, and I remember the wind being very warm.

In the morning every road was blocked by trees and so many tiles and in some cases roofs destroyed.

Wow it is getting darker and darker, I can’t remember anything like this. If you were a stone age or even medieval person it would be quite scary I think.

1987 we lived in Biggin Hill in Kent. My ex-husband tried to drive to work the next morning but trees all across the roads and power lines down. He had to return home, all the schools were closed.
The sky is a very strange colour here in Essex, almost yellow.

I was woken as all the electricity went out, and got up and padded downstairs to the front door. We were very short of money, and any outage always caused me concern. It was fine if the whole street was out, but if not, then it could mean something wrong in our house. As I approached the front door my 18 year old son called out ' It's ok Mum, the whole of London is out'. He had sorted out a battery walkman type thing and attached a couple of speakers so he was listening to the news as it came in. Heard Seven Oaks becoming One Oak. I checked all my children to make sure none of them were upset.
In the morning the BBC Tv was being broadcast from what looked like a broom cupboard, we were told all schools were closed, etc. My 17 year old daughter slept through the whole thing and wandered downstairs dressed ready for school, 'Storm, what storm!!'.
Later that day my 12-year old twins nagged me as they were supposed to have training at Crystal Palace, (the opposite side of London for me in Waltham Forest), and I gave in and drove them there, etc. We can all remember having to find out way around trees across main roads.

We lived in East Berkshire and were on the edge of it. I was woken in the night by the wind because the bedroom window was open slightly and it was blowing the blind so that the wooden thing at the end of the pull was banging on the glass, I shut the window, observed it was very windy and went back to bed.

Didn't know how bad the wind was until I turned the radio on. Radio said that there were problems on the trains but as the Paddington trains seemed less affected, I went down to the station a little late, walking past one or two trees that were down. My half hour train journey took two hours. I got the office, to find there had been a power cut and that when it was restored there were problems so the building was closed and I had to turn round and go back home again!!

That weekend we went down to visit my DP in West Sussex and, despite having seen the devastation on tv, actually seeing all the damage was profoundly shocking.

We`d arrived home from Zakynthos the previous evening, and went to bed early, to be woken by eldest daughter at 8am, excitedly telling us about the storm.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

The original great storm did me a favour - I lived on my own after a divorce - but was so upset by the storm that I phoned my then male friend. He came and rescued me and we eventually married and lived together very happily until he died this March aged 82 years. My combined families have made this bearable for an old lady of 84 years. What happy memories.

How lovely granny12!

I remember having to drive through an area where there were a lot of fallen trees the day after the 1987 storm; luckily the road had been cleared.
The sun was red today and it was extremely dark and gloomy - a very eerie feeling.

My baby was three months old and I was sure the noise would wake her as next doors greenhouses shattered all through the night

We were living in Surrey, but had just moved from Essex. On that night we actually had two houses, one in each place! Luckily Surrey one was fine, Essex one had fences down. There were no fence panels to be bought in Essex, due to the storm, so when buyers handed us cash for carpets, we had to hand it straight back to pay for fence panels when they became available.?

I remember waking up to the sound of chainsaws on the nearby main road, blocked by several big trees. We are very close to Richmond Park, where all the gates were locked for at least a week. A house near us had a massive tree crash through their roof - luckily nobody was hurt.

The one funny one is of our milkman, saying, 'I don't know - a little bit of wind and the whole country goes to rack and ruin!'

We lived in Kent so took a big brunt of the storm. My husband took the dog for a walk around 10.30 and commented on the eerie feel. He predicted a big storm but I pointed out to him that Michael Fish had reassured us that he was wrong. I was woken by the sound of the roof tiles clattering and woke my husband up because I was worried about the newly built Wendy house plus I had a friend who was very nervous because her husband was away for a week. He wouldn’t check the Wendy house and he refused to get in the car and go and check on our friend. I lay awake all night worrying. The next morning every shed in our row of houses was gone. The Wendy house stood firm. I dragged all three children to the other side of town (no buses every tree on the main road had fallen) to check on my friend only to be told she’d slept through the whole thing. My smug husband was right on all three counts...unlike said Michael Fish.