OCTOBER 87 , what were you doing and where

[carlseawolf]

october 87 the great storm ( this is an age thing , to young and you will be saying what? )i know where i was,
i was 14 miles out at sea just south of plymouth devon on a trawler the weather was storm force 10 - 12 and we where fishing, and we spent the whole storm out there.
i was just wondering how many people on here remembered that week as i mentioned it some a kid the other day and they gave me a blank stare.

[richard p]

i dont remember it being that big a deal here in central somerset, there were a few trees down locally but i think we missed the worst, did sell the old mans petrol chainsaw for a good price that week though.

[Jenny Green]

I was on an aeroplane to Australia! Spoke to my brother not long after I landed and he was ranting about how all the trees had come down. I thought he was exaggerating. Not long after I took off they grounded all flights.

[jopsy]

i was 13 i recall getting the day off school because of flying debris
i spent the day at home with my mum and sister

[Clive.]

Hello,
It was mighty windy up in Lincolnshire the night of The Storm but nothing like what was going on in the Sunny South...

First thing on waking that morning I turned the radio on to 558Khz MW fearing for some others that were out on a trawler, in fact ex trawler turned radioship Ross Revenge....Radio Caroline were still broadcasting even though there was a problem with a loose mast stay...meanwhile the BBC etc were broadcasting from an emergency standby broom cupboard..!!

The Ross Revenge 300ft mast in fact succumbed a month later.

I also sadly recall that in the aftermath of the storm an Electricity Board work colleague of my fathers died in an incident with a weakened tree falling whilst the linesman was on emergency secondment to the Southern Counties.

I seem to think in Lincs we had a severe storm the following spring..??.

We certainly did in 2000 when a blow went through just our coastal strip one morning...we stood and watched in a blizzard of leaves as many fine trees including our 1815 Cedar were torn and damaged.
I took a whole film immediately afterwards as hardly a tree escaped some damage...I particularly recall a young Lime tree that was once a classic beehive sort of shape having its branches doubled back on themselves..!!

I have wandered a few years in the above but do recall October 87

All the best,
Clive

[Chantal]

I was at home, which at that time was Draycote Water Sailing Club. We lived in the flat on top of the club overlooking 600 acres of water and it was WILD! I recall seeing the glass in our windows bending as they weren't double glazed; it was very very scary. Also the flag mast crashed down over the roof and nearly came through my bedroom window in the middle of the night. Not something I'll ever forget!

The following day there was dinghys piled four and five deep in the dinghy park. Windsurfers were smashed into pieces and blown all over the place and boats that had been tied down to concrete blocks had been upended with the blocks smashed through the hulls. Several of the rescue boats which were moored offshore were also shipwrecked on the beach and most of the permanent marker buoys had broken loose too.

Ahh memories, and Mr Fish said it would be a bit of a breeze...

[carlseawolf]

clive is ross trawlers from grimsby or from hull i now its from some where up there as i was born in scunthorpe, and was fishing for 18 years

[Belinda]

That night I was trying to sleep in a basement flat in Sevenoaks, but the noise of twigs and debris hitting the bedroom window (combined with the other half's snoring) kept me on tenterhooks all night.

Next morning I got up, got dressed and started to walk down to the train station to go to work. I only got as far as the end of the road where I found my poor little Mini squished by a large tree.

Famously Sevenoaks became One Oak that night, although they did replant eventually, Toys Hill and Brastead Chart nearby were devastated, the arial photos looked reminiscent of shots following the Hiroshima bomb with all the trees laid down in neat rows all pointing the same way.

The local community pulled together and helped out those less fortunate, especially the elderly. We knew quite a lot of the locals as we had just ceased running a nearby Pub. The best bit for me was when they brought in the teams of Shire horses to help clear fallen trees in areas that the heavy machinery either couldn't get to because of access or would have been stranded in because of the saturated ground conditions.

Scary at the time, but some good memories.

[seedling]

I was at university in Edinburgh at the time and we had none of the gales they had down south. My sister was in Bromley, Kent at the time and said she was terrified the house was going to blow away . She had a very sleepless night but luckily apart from damage to the garden and the shed, the house escaped.
For once the weather in Scotland was better than in England - doesnt happen very often
Seedling

[peter]

I was woken up in the middle of the night by the howling of the wind, went and stood at the french window watching next doors bramley tree rocking back and forth for twenty minutes or so, then went back to bed. This was a substantial tree, thirty foot diameter and about fifteen feet high.

When I got up at daybreak the bramley was still standing unscathed, but the top twelve feet of next doors thirty foot scots pine was sat in the middle of the bottom end of the lawn.

Went down to the bottom of the garden, east end and had a look. Every tree along the riverside at the bottom of the garden had laid down into the garden. A dozen substantial hawthorns and the 18" thick oak, which had missed the henhouse by about 6". The river was full to the brim and as it ran from north to south and the wind had come from the south-east the fully leaved trees had stood no chance.

I decided to go and buy a chainsaw. Went out the front and the neighbours across the road had their willows down against the house and by the last house on our side the road was 90% blocked by the top half of the oak tree at the corner of their front garden. Local gentleman farmer drove up in his Land Rover and squeexed through.

Two men turned up in a van, hopped out, opened the back door, produced two chainsaws , cleared the oak in ten minutes and packed up to go on. Turned out they worked for the GF and were off to his second farm. They were sooo happy to hear their boss had swept past minutes before they arrived.

I drove to town, couldnt get in the west road, huge oak tree, had to go to the east side. Got to the hardware store and was second in the queue at the garden counter when it opened.

Bloke in front wanted a chainsaw, when I was served the six blokes behind me all wanted a chainsaw. More bloke's arrived every few minutes wanting chainsaws. Salesman was ££££££

I spent the rest of the day, chaining it, did our garden by mid-afternoon and after repairing the henrun fence I moved on to the neighbours willows.


By dusk I was knackered X 2.

I still have the South eastern book published the next year, showed it to my kids last year, they were amazed, some of the pictures are truly spectacular, Toy's Hill and some NT properties in Kent especially.

[jopsy]

peter what is it with men and their chainsaws??
dh is obsessed!

[peter]

peter what is it with men and their chainsaws??
dh is obsessed!

Dunno, still got it, but barely used since, barring the repeat but smaller storm in '89.

[Piglet]

I spent the best part of 24 hours on a ferry just outside Dover harbour as it was to rough to dock. It is etched into my memory and not something I ever want to repeat.

[Lyn]

We were fortunate to escape the worst up here in Cheshire, but family in Sussex had a narrow escape after a tree crashed through their roof. Luckily no-one was injured. I had given birth to my youngest daughter that week, but the hurricane stole the limelight from the new arrival!
Lyn

[Johnboy]

Hi Carlseawolf,
Sadly I can remember 1937 let alone 1987 I suppose that makes me the miserable old git I am beginning to be.
In this area we too missed the main brunt of the
Hurricane but I went South with my Cahinsaws and other felling equipment and ended up with family in Hertfordshire clearing many trees and debris. I then went down to Basinstoke, to more family, which was still in a right mess over a week after the event.
Would you believe that it is only in the last 18 months that our local sawmills has cleared the last of the trees brought up from the south.