The Great Storm of `87

[Shewie]

I`ve been reading a lot lately about the storms we had back in `87 and wondered how it affected some of the people on here. I was only 12 at the time but remember being on a small private chartered plane with my dad on the Thursday night flying out to Geurnsey on a business trip. My mum was in hospital at the time having an operation so I had to go along with my dad for the weekend. The flight over is still as fresh in my mind now as it was then. My dad doesn`t like flying much anyway so we were in a bit of a state by the time we got there.
In early November of that year we went up to Scotland for a week to get my mum away and basically have some chillout time. I`ll never forget the endless miles of flattened trees we saw which looked as though an atom bomb had just gone off. I can remember climbing quite a large hill up to a WW2 plane crash site on top of a hill with a small loch, quite an eery place as all the wreckage was still there including an engine on a tiny little island in the middle. Can`t remember the name of the loch now but the view was incredible from here.
These were the early days of my wild camping adventures which eventually evolved into an interest in bushcraft, I walked and camped for many miles in northern Scotland over the next five or six years and some of the scenes of devastation were gobsmacking.

It would be interesting to hear your stories of how your fave outdoor places were affected.

Rich

 

[spamel]

We were moved from the tall buildings in our school into the library as it was a single storey building and therefore it would be safer. The roof literally peeled off in the wind with us sat inside! It was at this time that they decided we should go home! I ran with a friend all the way home in the middle of the road down Clarkes' Hill (I don't think that's its real name, but is what we called it) in Plymouth, alert for the sound of cracking trees so that we didn't get hit by falling branches or worse. It was quite frightening, but also quite exciting!

 

[EdS]

in the middle of the channel in a ferry coming back form Europe. The boat that sail just before us got beached.

 

[bikething]

...I ran with a friend all the way home in the middle of the road down Clarkes' Hill (I don't think that's its real name, but is what we called it) in Plymouth...

I still call it Clarkes' hill - i used to cycle up and down it to see my then girlfriend in Tamerton Foliot - The Clarkes shoe factory at the top of the hill closed down a good few years ago now and has been turned into a little industrial estate..

 

[spamel]

I still call it Clarkes' hill - i used to cycle up and down it to see my then girlfriend in Tamerton Foliot - The Clarkes shoe factory at the top of the hill closed down a good few years ago now and has been turned into a little industrial estate..

I bet cycling down was much more fun than cycling up! For those that don't know, you need oxygen masks by the time you get to the top!

 

[Matt Weir]

This far North I think it was just a few roof tiles but I was a sulky ignorant 15 year old at the time so I was probably in my bedroom feeling sorry for myself.






I'm glad that the word sorry appeared in that statement

 

[Wayland]

I was hitch-hiking down to meet a friend in Ascot. They were closing the motorway as my ride came off it.

I couldn't see what all the fuss was about at the time but in the morning it was chaos.

 

[bikething]

I bet cycling down was much more fun than cycling up! For those that don't know, you need oxygen masks by the time you get to the top!

It was easier than the "short-sharp-shock" of Box hill at the other end - I used to shear bolts and bend chainsets for a pastime (This was on a 10-speed drop-handlebar bike that weighed a ton - none of these featherweight 48-gear mountain bikes back then!)

back on topic - I was a sparkies apprentice back then - we had Bedford rascall vans (the ones shaped like a loaf of bread with a 900cc engine )
They were a bit unstable in the wind - I remember us driving back to the office with the van mostly on two wheels in the side wind - We ended up going to the local tip and filling the bottom 3rd of the van with old storage heaters and rubble as ballast!

 

[leon-1]

I was doing a first aid course in the Army (Regimental First Aiders), that night we had a few problems with the roof and the next day we were deployed all around the Canterbury area clearing wind fallen trees from roads and all sorts.

I also got to put my new first aid skills to the test when a mate gave himself axe rash to a shin .

At home in Tunbridge Wells the Lime trees suffered quite badly over on the common and up the road in Seven Oaks they became more like Five Oaks as they got hammered as well.

 

[GreenmanBushcraft]

I can remember two lots of bad gales we had and I almost got blown away in the 1987 winds. I was walking home from school (trying to anyway) and I was lifted off my feet with only a fence keeping me from moving faster than I wanted. Put a few pounds on since then though, so it has no chance next time

 

[spamel]

I've been lifted off my feet by wind, but it was the down draught from a chinook! It is an exhilirating experience, you truly cannot believe that wind could do that to you until it happens!

 

[leon-1]

I've been lifted off my feet by wind, but it was the down draught from a chinook! It is an exhilirating experience, you truly cannot believe that wind could do that to you until it happens!

I've been there as well mate. The worst was wearing a 210lb bergan and being blown backwards on ski's whilst wearing skins (South Georgia -25 and 150mph wind). When mother nature stamps her foot you know it's been stamped.

 

[Tony]

I was 17, living in Bournemouth and didn't even know about what had hit us until i got up that morning aftre a night on my girlfriends parents couch. I then spent much of the day travelling about admiring the destruction, schools roofs torn off and sitting hundreds of yards away, trees through houses and the best one was a shop window that blew out when I was looking out of the bus window... kerbooooom, glass everywhere, that was right down in the town centre.

I can't say it directly impacted on me, other than when I then went swimming in the sea whihc was brilliantly rough and threw me all over the place. I think at that age it was an adventure, at this age I appreciate more the impact it has on people.

 

[gorilla]

i remember the 8 man frame tent that my mum and dad were airing out in the garden was found over a mile away

 

[JonnyP]

It was a very busy time for me...I was working for a contracting firm at the time, and when I could eventually get into work (the village I was living in was totally cut off for a few days) I had a great fun job...I was in the front bucket of a JCB being driven all over the area. I had a chainsaw (first time I had used them) and every tree hanging over the road, I was lifted up to cut it down...Health and safety would of gone mad...After a few weeks I was persueded (with extra money) to go back to a roofing firm I had worked for before. We had so much work to do...We went to this place where a roof had come down on this guys classic car collection, it was a right mess...Also, on that job they had a shed type horse stable thingy, which had been lifted off the ground and planted into a tree. It was totally undamaged, just up in a tree..Luckily the horse wasn't in it at the time...
We had power off for 2 weeks in the village..I had tropical fish at the time, but managed to keep them going with a parafin heater going below the tank..It kept it to the minimum temperature and I only lost one fish..
I remember going for walks which were more like clambers, with all the trees down in the area...Most of the rivers were flooded at the time too..
I still see loads of trees while out walking nowadays, that were downed in the storm..Many are lying flat but have all the branches going straight up towards the light...Can't believe it was 20 years ago, doesn't time fly....

 

[twisted firestarter]

There was a good documentary late last night on E4 about the 20th anniversary of the

storm. It brought home the full impact of the devastation which was then followed two

days later by 'Black Monday', the stock market crash- a true double whammy!

I was living in my workshop saving to go travelling and could hear the storm gathering

outside,on managing to get the door open I watched as a 150 foot

section of scaffolding on the buildings opposite was thrown to the ground making a

massive crashing sound.

The following morning I had to hitch to London and got a lift on the motorway in a high

sided truck. The wind was still strong enough to make me very nervous, not helped by the

numerous lorries on their sides littering the M4 :Wow:

 

[h2o]

i was walking the ribble way with my dad but we had to come home we didnt want to risk sleeping out in bivi bags

 

[Twoflower]

I knew nothing about it expect waking up in the middle of the night and looking out the window to see a neighbour chasing his shed down the road in his underwear. I thought nothing of that and went back to bed only to wake up at 11am the next day wondering why my mum hadn't woken me for school. Yes, I can sleep through anything!

 

[spamel]

This guy in his underpants didn't really think it through did he! What did he expect to achieve? The wind was blowing his shed away, did he think if he could just hold on to it it would stay put?!





There's nowt stranger than folk!

 

[JonnyP]

looking out the window to see a neighbour chasing his shed down the road in his underwear. I thought nothing of that and went back to bed

Ha ha....Normal sort of thing for your neighbour to do eh..?