Cinnamon Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 It seems like yesterday, but it was 20 years ago this week that the great storms hit the Uk,causing devastation & destruction everywhere, & in particular here in the south-east. Do you remember that day? I was working at Childrens World,on a late shift & due to finish at 9pm, but was luckliy sent home in the afternoon as it was already getting nasty out. As I drove my Beetle up the road from the shop,I was actually blown off the road & onto the pavement - Beetles are NOT made for high winds. Anyhow, we both got home safely & hunkered down for the evening. I remember the howling of the winds where we lived back then,in Henley. It would be even scarier here with woods all around us! When the clock radio went off in the morning the first thing we heard was that Henley was completely cut off, so that meant a day at home We went for a walk - there was no driving anywhere that day - & took in the damage around us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Wow that must have been pretty amazing, and scary! We lived 'oop north' at the time, so it didn't touch us. Remember reading about them though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 We lost our garage. It was a rickety old thing, and it collapsed in the storm. Fortunately we didn't use it to keep the cars in. We never did replace it, and we didn't claim on the insurance (it was in such bad shape to start with, we felt it was tooo cheeky to put in a claim). The arden seemed much bigger with it gone! We lived near Cliveden then. Many trees came down and smashed part of the huge walls of the estate to pieces. It took a long time to rebuild them, they had trouble sourcing suitable reclaimed bricks I believe. There was a lot of damage in Burnham Beeches. We were able to get to work, but many people couldn't. Lots of great stories, one of my colleagues couldn't get out of her road because it was blocked by a fallen tree. Her husband and some of the others were out with chainsaws trying to cut through it. She made it into work in the afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I remember it but was too poorly to remember much apart from the fact we didn't suffer much in the way of damage. I'd just come out of hospital after a nasty bout of pneumonia and pleurisy - tried to watch the news but slept a lot and missed things.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was still at school, and I can remember sitting in maths, listening to the wind blowing around the school, the seeing roof tiles and ceiling tiles blowing around the playground. Turned out the there was asbestos in the ceiling, and becuase of all the tiles and debris being blown around, we each had to be escorted from the building by the fire brigade. My friend and I decided to head up to my mothers work, to try and con some money out of her for a jaunt up to Princes Street, but that plan was cut short when Amanda was blown into the pond in the park as we ran through. The school was shut for ages, as they removed the asbestos and made everything safe again. I don't remember any damage to our house, or neighbouring houses, but I'm pretty sure that there must have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I remember it. It was a big adevnture being only 6. Our 3 storey house moved so much int he wind and we lost a lot of the huge trees around where we lived. Not as scary as the year our roof blew off though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 We had only lived in Cheltenham for about a week when it happened, we lived in an attic flat in an old Victorian house but fortunately there was no damage. There are a lot of trees lining the streets around here and unfotunately someone was killed in their MG soft top at traffic light in the centre of town. The council have been very sensitive about the state of trees ever since and we have lost a lot. I was only 20 and had just moved a long way from family & friends and I got nervous walking near trees when the wind blew for a long time after wards. 20 years ago hey that makes me feel very old Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cate in NZ Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I remember it well, we lived in Crystal Palace then and both hubby and I needed to be at work on early shifts in central London the morning after. There was no public transport and I remember driving in through Dulwich, and Denmark Hill (can't think why we took that route, greatest number of clear roads I guess) and travelling past all these scenes of devastation, huge great trees uprooted and lying across the roads, damaged houses and cars. It was incredible. I got to work late and actually got told off for it as the night girls were desperate to get home, although very few people who didn't actually live in the Nurses home managed to get in at all that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 A tree blew over at the school my children attended and missed one of the buildings by less than a foot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffie Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was living in Reading, yep remember the traffic lights being torn from pavements BBx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happymama Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was working at RAF Northolt then, and remember that although it wasn't supposed to be very violent, we had to protect the aircraft on the pan. We double chocked the big un's (Herc, P3) and got fire engines and bowsers to park across the lighter stuff (no tiedown points in those days) to deflect the wind, and fuelled everything to it's gills to try and make it a bit heavier. At the end of each line, there was a box with a blue flashing light on top, and four 12-cell batteries in it. In the morning, four small or light aircraft had MOVED 10 feet, the Herc had bounced around so much it's nosewheel had completely 180'd, and these VERY heavy battery filled boxes had fetched up against the fence at the other side of the airfield. Trees were down EVERYWHERE the next day, it was acute and complete chaos. I went to work by bicycle, couldn't move 10 feet in the car. I slept through it, but I did close the curtains (didn't usually bother) at 11pm, in case the windows came in, so must have had some sense of what was coming, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was living in Reading, yep remember the traffic lights being torn from pavements BBx Buffie it was just outside of Walls carnival Stores that I got blown off the road. I never knew you lived in Reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paola Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I slept through it My Dad was a mini cab driver at the time and worked nights. He thought that it was best to come home when bins started overtaking him We lived opposite Clapham Common, we lost so many trees Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feemcg Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I don't remember it - wonder what I was doing at the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I walked home in it! Was worse for wear after a night of debauchery at a close friend's house. Decided to walk the 1/4 mile home to straighten up, I remember feeling the hot wind that heralded the hurricane, I thought " Blimey I must be more out of it than I thought, I'm boiling hot!" got blown down the road home then listened muzzily to trees crashing down in Fulham all night, and a noise like the Hounds of Hell howling at the door. My dad was staying with me and woke me up to tell me about the devastation, I was relieved I hadnt imagined it but swore never to mix the grain and the grape ever again............... Sorry Rhapsody, i was trying to quote you and deleted your post! (this modding lark can be a bit of a nightmare at times ) I once mixed the grape and the grain and haven't had a drink since!! 5 years this New Years Eve! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlottechicken Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I don't remember it - wonder what I was doing at the time Same here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I slept through the whole thing! Woke up to find half the trees in our road were down and the brick wall down the side of the garden, in a pile! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theherd123 Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I remember the news reports the next day about the trees at Kew but nothing else Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was at school too.....things like weather back then never bothered me like it does now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina C Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I had been living in my first house for about a month. Lost some slates off the roof - but it needed re-roofing anyway. In those days you could still get grants for that sort of thing. I saw the roofer in Waitrose the other day and, as always, said hello - Layla asked me 'who was that man' and I was a bit shocked when I worked out that he was someone I had known for 20 years. Surely I can't be that old? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChookieCaz Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Just talking about this now with my husband. He remembers the fences coming down and having to move plants in the night because the fences were on them. One tile moved out of position, but not as much damage to the roof as in the 1990 storm. I was glad that I wasn't working on "Black Friday" because I don't know how I would have got to work. I lived in Tilehurst, Reading and worked at Smiths Hospital near Henley. One of my colleagues was certainly dedicated because she somehow tried lots of different roads in South Oxfordshire and finally got through to relieve the night staff! With so many woodlands, I don't know how she found a route. The roads were still bad between Reading and Henley on the Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 They certainly were. We made a long weekend of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffie Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 I was living in Reading, yep remember the traffic lights being torn from pavements BBx Buffie it was just outside of Walls carnival Stores that I got blown off the road. I never knew you lived in Reading Briefly Sarah, with Michael's cousin. It was chaos and I had to walk to Caversham BBx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 I remember it very clearly - I was staying back at my folks in Herts and due to fly to Tunisia, to live for a while, the next morning. We were awake all night and had no leccie the next morning, so got out a battery radio and found that the roads were chaos. My mother volunteered to drive me to the airport, finally got there and stayed there all night waiting for them to clear the backlog of flights. The drive there was very eventful, with several diversions. True to form, my dad was away on business and didn't hear about it for days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 We didn't get affected much up here, but I remember being really worried about my friend who lives in Kent, & I rang her to make sure she was ok- she was I was 15 at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
