20 Years Since the Great Storm....

[HeyWayne]

I don't seem to remember much about it at all. Either down to the fact that we were hardly affected (possibility), or that I was an ignorant 12 year old at the time (probability).

[Headfry]

Goodness, 20 years ago.... well I lived in Essex then, my home was a little thatched cottage only a bungalow, but non the less it was made of sticks and straw(I know what the 3 little piggies went through!)
I had been off sick with a really nasty flu, the kind that keeps you in bed. Ran out of coal so pulled jumper over pj's and set of in the landrover to next village, upon my return I noticed that a lake was forming at the back (weather boarded!!!) of the cottage! Rang o/h he said to monitor it.Panic!! It got worse, and worse...he came home about 6pm and with the engineering works next door sorted out a pump which we had to run all night. At 1am 'ish my friend form next door said "you had better pick those apples, the wind is getting up and will damage the young trees" we sat in the garden at eating apples, it was a very warm, very strange feeling that night, the air felt kinda odd, even the driving rain was warm-then about 3am it started....
We lashed the garden hammock the the huge willow, went in doors and waited for the next refill time to come around (for the pump)
Never ever have I felt or heard wind like it.It hit the cottage like hard waves. The noise was more of a roar,wail or something. The power went out, but we were geared up for power cuts, (lasted about 5-6 days) we have a generator, and the cottage ran only on solid fuel for heating and I was happy cooking on the lovely old range.
Our cottage was left very ruffled, the willow fell on the hammock, branches trashed the greenhouse.We were lucky as a row of 5 new houses had their roof lifted and walls damaged. I was very sad at all the black leaves on the facing side of the hedgerows. I worked for BT in the drawing office at the time but was drafted in as part of the 'storm team' we ran for weeks after the storm, and took thousands of calls.
I feels like it was only last week, goodness, 20 years ago.....

[scarey55]

I was going to pretend that I was also too young to remember anything but then; you all know how old I am so that won't work

I was working in Newcastle that week and I remember waking up in my hotel room during the night and thinking it was a bit windy .

I got up in the morning and turned the TV on as usual to watch the breakfast news and I couldn't find anything on. Eventually, someone came on broadcasting from a cupboard somewhere (or that's what it seemed like) Anyway, I went to work as normal but couldn't fly home because all the airports were either shut or running a reduced service so I had to drive back down to the south (Andover)

Everything started off well but as we got closer to the south of England we encountered all sorts of carnage, trees and powerlines down, "dead" cars at the side of the road etc... It looked like a scene from a disaster movie. I don't think we had any electricity for at least a week but, as I remember it was a beautiful sunny day on the Saturday.

Ah... yes, I remember it well (wasn't that a song?)

[scarey55]

20 years ago????
I presume this is the one Michael Fish is famous for????

Not much went on in Cheshire I recall...although I remember feeling the loss of some of the Seven Oaks trees- hate to see the death of an old tree.
( were they replaced???)

Isn't that the place they call One Oak these days? Sorry, but someone was bound to say it

[JanieB]

I was in Holland on business when the storm was at it's worst. It was also very windy in Amsterdam.

I flew back to Heathrow at the tailend of the storm and could see trees blown over and many were quite some way away from the hole they'd come out of. There were acres of flattened greenhouses glittering in the sunlight.

The worst of it was that they wanted to take me G&T away . Business Class it was in a glass not a plastic tumbler. The plane was being chucked around a bit , and it was a safety thing. I hid it under my tray. I NEEDED that drink .

[moggssue]

Hmmm, I was living in Cheshire at the time and so wasn't really affected. I do remember being worried at the way the living room patio window was bowing but was sooo lucky and suffered no real damage. I felt for those who did suffer, and for the trees and wildlife too. Hey, now I feel old thinking about it being 20 yrs ago!!

[zebedee]

I remember sitting in our lounge, wiv no power, listening to the crashing and banging outside. In the morning I went out to check things over. To my surprise, (pleased I have to say) the neighbours both sides had serious damage, and we hadn't even lost a roof tile! The whole area looked like a bomb site.

[greenlung]

My sister's mother in law was killed by a falling tree that night.
I was living in Sydney at the time and flew in to Gatwick the following week to scenes of unforgettable devastation.

[Headfry]

Greenlung I am so sorry, my wishes to them. It must be a very sad time for you all
Headfry
xx

[TPeers]

20 years ago????
I presume this is the one Michael Fish is famous for????

Not much went on in Cheshire I recall...although I remember feeling the loss of some of the Seven Oaks trees- hate to see the death of an old tree.
( were they replaced???)

Yes....

Isn't that the place they call One Oak these days? Sorry, but someone was bound to say it

Not quite.....

The Seven Oaks were reduced to one, but 13 were planted to replace them so now it should be 14 oaks!

I was in Brighton, close to Stanmer Woods - I remember that it looked like someone had been playing pick up sticks with the wood - the trees had been combed down, really weird. We had had a really rotten summer, very similar to this one and the autumn storms were early and hard....

Can I suggest that everyone prunes their trees!

[Nicos]

I must admit that having a wood burning stove, I get a bit excited at the idea of branches falling into the road- especially at weekend when I set off with my OH and chainsaw to help clear the country lanes!!!

...and yes..we have been on the receiving end of a 150 yr old ash tree splitting 4 ways and taking out the whole side of our garden and summerhouse and shed ( with bunny hutches ..yep- all survived...)
It smashed most things on the patio and missed the house by a couple of feet. All that at the end of August after very heavy rain about 12 years ago!

Nature doing its self pruning I think!

[madmax]

I was in Holland on business when the storm was at it's worst. It was also very windy in Amsterdam.

I flew back to Heathrow at the tailend of the storm and could see trees blown over and many were quite some way away from the hole they'd come out of. There were acres of flattened greenhouses glittering in the sunlight.

The worst of it was that they wanted to take me G&T away . Business Class it was in a glass not a plastic tumbler. The plane was being chucked around a bit , and it was a safety thing. I hid it under my tray. I NEEDED that drink .

We had some good storms in Germany in Dec last year. The KLM 737 nearly got blown off the runway at Munich and when we landed at Schiphol it was interesting. Not the boring usual type of landing. A few years before I was going from AMS to Cardiff and the last plane to take off was a little Fokker 50 I was in. Flew at 3500ft all the way and it took 2 1/2 hours to get to Cardiff! I find the turbulence and buffeting about makes the flight more interesting. Really!

[scared55]

I find the turbulence and buffeting about makes the flight more interesting. Really!

... and how sad does that make you?

KK