The Great Storm of ' 87 (Channel 5)

[Samoan]

Engrossing documentary last night - still available on C5 Catch Up - and how the mighty Seven Oaks in Kent became One Oak in a matter of hours. Lots of well informed talking heads from the worlds of journalism, TV, tree surgery, and the crestfallen Met Office.

It became apparent that once they realised how bad it was going to be, they withheld it from the emergency services for fear of panic. It was the Ministry of Defence who advised them and who mobilised the armed forces.
The French Meteorologists were way superior and had warned the French population half a day earlier as the storm was barrelling up north from the Bay of Biscay.



Personally, I slept right through in an attic bedroom in inner London. We were so lucky.

[robertff]

I was living in the heart of Sevenoaks at the time and remember it well. I remember waking up and looking out of bedroom window, wondering what the strange and very loud howling noise was and being alarmed at dustbins and other things flying down the road. Thought there was nothing much I could do about it and went back to bed.

They produced a book showing pictures of the devastation, still got it. Going to work the next day was interesting, despite having to travel the furthest I was one of only three members of an entire staff who got to my place of employment and a colleague of mine whilst trying to fix his roof fell off breaking both his legs.

I’ll have to watch it.

.

[Samoan]

It's in the Documentaries section.

[copehead]

I was living in London when that happened and had been to see Nyah Fearties ( any one remember them ?) in New Cross.

I was so pissed I didn't really realise what was going on, just that there were no buses or trains running and the streets were empty of everything except bins and signage barrelling down the Old Kent road which I was basically crawling up towards London Bridge.

Eventually a kindly taxi driver stopped and got me and my mate in saying " you're going to die!" and took us home to my digs in Kings Cross.

I woke to eerie, for central London, silence and I looked out the window onto the little cemetery out the back of the Nurses home I was living in and all the trees had blown over, as I walked in to UCL there were trees down everywhere and no traffic at all.

I think I had a lucky escape

[Rayge]

16 October was my birthday (39). I was living on my own in a mansion flat in a leafy road off Cricklewood Broadway. As I went to bed the night before, I remember thinking, 'That wind is getting up a bit," just before I nodded off. I slept through the mayhem, but woke up to the eerie silence that Will describes above. Some trees were down or damaged, there was no traffic at all, no post (obviously) and telephone lines and electricity were down, so it took a while before I could piece together what was going on. A few days later, I went to Brighton, and the carnage there along the Old Steyne was extraordinary, mature trees scattered everywhere.