Can You Remeber The Big Storm Of 1987 ?

[Dee Sa]

I can vividly, we were home on leave from Dubai and going back next day so had last minute shopping to buy and nice English M&S food we wanted to take back with us, parked the car in Wood Green and got blown down the High Rd en route to M&S the High Rd was deserted apart from one policeman who advised us to turn round and go home, cant I said must get to M&S he said we were mad ! we were the only customers had the whole store to ourselves. Next day we only saw one other car on the M25 as we headed for Heathrow it was as though the Martians had landed not a soul to be seen quite spooky and of course after returning the hire car and eventually reaching check in & no planes were taking off anyway.

[atalanta]

I remember waking to hear all sorts of hysterical excitement on the radio, disasters, catastrophes and miseries. I looked out of the window expecting to see missing rooves and smashed trees with cars underneath them. All I saw was one small twig in the road. As usual, the broadcasters had been obsessed with London and nearby, while we in the Midlands were almost untouched.

[jomifl]

Nope, slept through it, my excuse is that my bedroom was on the leeward side of the building. I do remember the overwhelming and pervasive smell of pulverised vegetation.

[ChillDoubt]

Yes, I was in Templer Barracks in Ashford, Kent on a course.
Part of the roof of our accomodation block was torn off and several trees nearby were felled.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

My aerial came down and smashed through my baby son's window. He and the cot were covered in glass, but everyone was ok. It was scary though

[SlackAlice]

I was a London bus driver at the time. I was the first bus out that day at about 4am. At first it was just windy with a lot of rain, but I realised something was up when I was overtaken by a metal dustbin and then all the streetlights went out!! Eventually dropped most of customers (early morning cleaners) at Aldgate after a diversion because of fallen trees. Dropped the last one off at Liverpool St and went round to Old St Stn, whereupon panes of glass were dropping of the high rise offices in front of the bus and I decided enough was enough. No fancy radio connections then but managed to contact London Buses controllers, who told me my garage had recalled all buses. Turned bus round and put 'Not in Service' up and took about another 90minutes to get back to the garage with numerous deviations due to fallen trees and telephone cables.

So, that day I was the first bus out and the last bus in. Garage finally re-opened about 1pm, but I was home by then and sorting out my shed which had lost the roof felt. Also, lost 2 large coping stones of the roof, which were never found.

[pixie373]

Am i confusing myself? How come everyone else was asleep and i remember being at school? We were made to sit in the hall til about half six pm and called out one at a time as parents were contacted. Did it start during the day?

[masma]

We woke to find our shed 3 doors down the road!

[rockyracoon]

Blimey Dee Sa I was living in Wood Green then and don't remember any of the storm, the only time I realised there was a problem was when I was walking to work the next day on White Hart Lane and saw trees and fences all over the place, plus most people didn't turn up for work.

[craft1948]

I lived in a mid-terrace...............never heard a thing.

[EDDIE51]

My fence ended up over the other side of the railway line in the allotments.
Had a 12 mile detour to get to work due to fallen trees blocking the roads.

[woofgang]

DH and i slept through it, woke to power cut so I pulled out the camping stove and made tea and toast, he went off to work and I then found the battery radio and put it on. Only then did I find out about the storm.

[gness]

I did buy a beautiful wooden bird carved from one of the fallen trees...named it Michael.....☺

[Dee Sa]

rockyr we could not walk along the High Rd the wind was so strong it was pushing us back.

[rockyracoon]

I must have walked around in a bubble back then, I thought that storm was only at night time.

[boxtops]

There was a lot of damage overnight, rocky - we didn't know about it until we woke in the morning, but I think it may have been starting up, the day before.

[mallyh]

yes our week old 6ft fence was smashed to pieces we lost roof tiles and conservatory roof smashed to bits ,you couldn't get a builder for weeks ,someone up from us had a garden shed appear in thieir garden not a good day x

[mallyh]

oh masma was it you shed lol

[nannybooby]

oh yes. We lived in Farnham Common and it struck about lunch time ,the school rang for us to pick up early and when I got to my daughter's school there were trees across the road and we had to clinb over them to get to the school. I collected my daughter and her friend and a lovely man was helping the kids over the fallen tree.
My daughters friend's house was surrounded with fallen trees and
by the time I got home trees had fallen over the road at both ends of our lane and I told my daughter to lay on the floor in the back as I drove under one that was half fallen.
We had no electric for about 3 days. But hey we were ok.