The great storm we had.
I remember I was 17 just started my 1st job and actually walked to New Cross before managing to get a bus rest of the way and was one of very few to have made it to work in Bread St EC2 (St Pauls area).
Got a bonus at the end of the month ,can't remember how much,for making the effort as so many didn't bother.
Just remember up by Mottingham station there used to be a really big tree on Middle Park avenue and that was laying across the road and about 4 cars destroyed by it.
Me and my dad were up virtually all night as we were light sleepers and my mum came down in the morning and started moaning there was no electricity to have a coffee etc and wouldn't believe us when we said about the storm - she slept through it unbeleiveably.
Reason I borught it up there is a documentary on it on Monday.
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Me and the lad next door drove our bikes down to Brampton, saw that nothing was happening so went home and played Football Manager all day. Couldn't believe the amount of trees down everyone, and just how silent roads seemed with no cars about.
Pup
I'd exchanged contracts on my first abode the day before so my first priority was to go and check to see if there was any damage to the property. Just my luck, half the roof had blown away...Gutted. And the bloke who was selling to me didn't want to know as he claimed it was my responsibility. Luckily, the next door neigbour took pity on me and as he was a roofer, he got up there and sorted it for the price of as few beers.
Was recovered (just) by the monday and got a bollocking for not ringing in to say i wont be in!
Kids of today
I made it down to new eltham station in about 5 mins with the wind behind me,no trains so walked back home into the wind and it took me about half an hour!
I'd like to say i then battled into work like Arf but i thought bollocks to that and went back to bed.
Up Wrotham hill there was one lane open thanks to someone using a chainsaw to cut a tree in half. I only saw about two or three other cars on the road.
I noticed a few tiles were missing off my roof when I got back and my mate sorted that for a half share of his inflated invoice via my house insurance. A couple of hundred quid made a big difference then and every other bugger was at it!
My mate paid his mortgage off six months later with the money he earned/blagged in the aftermath.
I also remember watching THAT Michael Fish forecast late that night - the one where he said "a woman has just rung up to say that a hurricane is on the way. Well don't worry, it's not"
My funniest memory is from the next morning. There was a furniture shop up the end of my road and the wind had blown a fence opposite through the window. I remember seeing a procession of people coming down the road with sofas and the like which they'd just lifted. Well, that's Catford for you!
I also lived in Middle Park at the time and the amount of trees that were lost that year, took ages for the clean up.
I still remember the night before the storm - and Michael Fish assuring us that the "Silly Woman in France" was wrong!! Yeah right!!!
1) The Storm
2) Following Monday (Ithink) Stock Market collapsed. Share Options buggered big time. (Later to recover)
3) 2 weeks later. First child born 12 weeks premature. Weighed 1 lb 10 ozs.
I need to take a pill.
The neighbours huge tree in the back garden had blown over and basically fell at such an angle to completely miss his house and just scrape up against ours. It's amazing to think of the fine lines between safety and severe damage.
Even more bizzare is that he had applied to the council to have the thing removed a couple of weeks before, but because of it's size and type he was going to have pay a fortune. Jammy git didn't have to after the hurricane. We however had to replace all our fence and the bloody pebbledashing!
The following day was really nice i recall, quite warm as well. We had a barbecue in the back garden as the power was off. It came back on in the middle of lunch.
From Wikipedia:
Hurricane Emily
Hurricane Emily 3
Duration September 20—September 26
Intensity 125 mph (205 km/h), 958 mbar (hPa)
Main article: Hurricane Emily (1987)
Emily formed east of the Windward Islands and headed west, causing considerable damage on Saint Vincent. It then slowly began turning north, and made landfall in the Dominican Republic, where three people were reported dead and there was $30 million (1987 US dollars) in damage. After passing over Hispaniola, Emily began a turn to the northeast, and eventually made landfall at Bermuda, where it caused $35 million (1987 USD) in damage, but no lives were lost. Thousands of migratory birds took refuge on Bermuda during the storm, including ten thousand bobolinks and thousands of Connecticut warblers. No guinea pigs were hurt at the Davis residence. As the cyclone moved past Bermuda, Emily became the fastest moving hurricane of the previous century, moving at a pace of 69 mph (111 km/h) or 31 m/s.
Bugger, turns out it wasn't Emily that became the great storm, but the following one, Floyd. Still, I'm sure without an Emily, there wouldn't have been a Floyd, and without a Floyd, no Great Storm of 87, thus making my contribution here relevant.
First child, first grandchild and first (and last) time I went out in the road with my underpants a hard hat and a bucket picking up 'whole' roof tiles.
As I had 'drowned' the baby's head that night I'm still not quite sure how I had the foresight to think of roof repairs at three in the morning.
the tree from outside had fallen across our drive and onto our wall. I remember me and my brother jumping over the tree and walking to work still across the goats field to get to school for a normal day.
when we got home the tree was moved, and it remained a stump for years. I think the tree that was replanted outside that house is pretty big now, which seems very strange.
I slept through it too, woke up to no electricity or school for the next week. (living in deepest Kent at the time)
We had lots of family staying down from London for a big christening so we had to boil saucepans of water for about 15 people to have stand up washes.
What with no TV or Radio we had to amuse ourselves by actually talking to each other!
The whole family looks a right state in the christening photos.
One theory, not established or generally accepted, is that it might have been a result of the jet stream coming from America in the wake of Hurricane Floyd (1987) and exceptionally warm weather of the Bay of Biscay.
I'd totally forgotten about that I will text him and remind him. Haven't spoke to the boy for a bit either
Asst Librarian was a guy called Mike Brown. He used to commute daily from Kenley, leaving at about 6 every morning to get in for 8.30. He hadn't realised that there had been a storm and couldn't work out why there was no power - He'd driven past trees falling and other assorted items flying past in the wind. The guy was totally oblivious to what had happened.
Finished my shift at about 2 in the morning and went home. The wind was really beginning to pick up but it was a warm wind, not what I'd expected. Got indoors and sat down in from of the TV to watch a video and after a while the power went off. That's when I realised bad things were getting. Roof tiles were beginning to be torn from the roof and were flying like missiles into the houses in the terrace behind ours. We lived facing an open playing field so the wind had nothing to lessen it's force.
Went to sleep eventually but still remember the sight the next morning.
Two houses close to ours had most of their roof blown off. The houses in terrace behind ours ware showing the scars of roofing tiles that had slammed into them. Fortunately there was little damage to our house.
A few days later we had friends down from Scotland. They thought that the reports of the storm has been grossly exagerated, he said 'Southerners think every puff of wind is a storm'. We went for a trip throught the kent countryside to show what had happened. It seemed as if a gigantic hand had brushed it's way through the woods and forests flattening everthin in it's path.
Unfortunately next door's tree failed to survive the storm but "our" tree is now taller than the house.
It makes me realise just how long I've lived there!
I drove to work the next day aiming for 9:00 am but arrived at 11:45 am. There were bits of tree everywhere en route.