The great storm

Discussion in 'Events' started by pete, Aug 14, 2007.

  1. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Didn't know where to put this so I thought as it was a great event, I'd put it here.
    Who remembers October 87, not sure of the day, and I dont think it was felt much in northern areas, ( would have been a gentle breeze up there) but down south it was really something.
    Cant believe it was nearly 20 yrs ago.
    These two were blown to an angle of 45 deg and left there, a catalpa in the foreground and a maple behind. They have both just carried on growing as if nothing happened. [​IMG]
     
  2. cajary

    cajary Gardener

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    Hi, pete. Yeah, I remember it. Took me 3hrs. to get back from work, :mad: (nightshift in a Foundry) I yhink half the trees round here were down. You can still see some of the damage that was caused by it. I took quite a few piccies of the damage but I still don't know how to post pictures so I can't put them up. :confused:
     
  3. walnut

    walnut Gardener

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    We did have it rough up here in the n.w the whole of Warrington was gridlocked all the motorways shut and guess what I was the only cyclist riding through it to work,your right Pete we are dead hard up North don't notice these things,in Scotland they are harder still they wear kilts even in winter. :D
     
  4. Honey Bee

    Honey Bee Gardener

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    Oh - gosh yes!!! It hit us early hours - I had only moved away from my home town two weeks earlier as my husband had been re-located - it was really bad - I was so young, and we sat up all night listening to the roof - we though it was going to come off!!! The night had started off eerily quiet and all we could hear were helicopters - the Navy were moving a lot of them - obviously to safer areas, then "BANG" literally, the storm hit!! We had no electricity or phones. My husband had a motorbike, but took my car to work in the morning and when he got into Portsmouth a large 10 story office block had lost all its windows and the road was covered in glass. All I wanted to do was go home to my Mum - but couldn't even talk to her!!!! There were so many trees down around us, hardly any roads were open and the roads were totally covered with branches and debris!!!
    I remember going to the New Forest the following year, and inside some of the enclosures there would be huge areas where the trees had just been flattened!! Really spooky!!! It was something like the 16th October?? :( :(
     
  5. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    One of my memories is going outside just as it was getting light, there was a loud roaring sound everywhere and flashes of what i thought at the time was lightning.
    It turned out to be caused by all the downed power cables. Roof tiles everywhere and hardly a single leaf left on anything that was still standing.

    Walnut, was that really the October 87 one you remember as I was under the impression that it didn't hit so hard up north.
    I remember another blow a year or so later that really hit the north hard.
     
  6. wiseowl

    wiseowl Friendly Admin Staff Member

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    Yes remember It well It hit us about 3am in the morning my shed 12x8 went up and over next door
    and landed on his greenhouse,I could,nt get out the house,could,nt get the doors open plus power cut ,Pitch black and the noise was quite terrifying I was working at Cobham Hall at the time we lost over 100 trees 30 of them huge Yew trees some 300yrs old.
     
  7. Victoria

    Victoria Lover of Exotic Flora

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    I also remember it but we were not affected although our cottage was quite open to the elements looking up to the Chilterns. We were quite near Chequers and there was complete devastation in the forests nearby toward Great Missenden.

    Agree, pete, doesn't seem like 20 years ago ...
     
  8. cajary

    cajary Gardener

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    The next hard blow was in '89. It didn't do so much damage down here because all the vulnerable trees had already been blown down!! I was on nights again. We still had Power Cables down and plenty of fences (mine included) flattened.
     
  9. Fran

    Fran Gardener

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    I too remember it well. I was living in Hockley near Southend at the time. Woke about 4am to the sound of the wind. Twas still dark, and as there was little I could do - after shutting the lean to conservatory door, after ensuring the cats were not in it - I went back to bed and slept after a fashion til I had to get up for work. Trees down, fences flapping in the wind or sailing in the wind, there was damage everywhere.

    If you remember Pete the Hurrican of 87 was followed by the worst snow storm ever in January 88 which brought everything to a halt - road, rail etc . I had to walk with some difficulty to to work at the hospital - it was a complete nightmare for quite a while - pretty though :D
     
  10. walnut

    walnut Gardener

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    The worst gales we have had was this year 7 people were killed in the n.w. which ever year was the worst for bad weather, rain, snow, wind I never missed a day riding through it.
     
  11. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Oh yes Fran, I remember the freeze the following January, it snowed here for two days solid, and was sub zero for days.
    Helicopters were called in just to move food to villages that were only a few miles from main towns but behind drifts 12 ft deep.

    That was our last really bad winter, I cant help thinking we are due another.
     
  12. Keving

    Keving Gardener

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    Pete, I remember the 87 storm, I had to drive to work alongside a water reservoir and all the boats had been blown out and were lying alongside the road. Also cajary, the 89 one was the day after my first son was born, took me 3 hours (should have been about 45 minutes) to get to the hospital, wife was completely oblivious in the hospital ward.
     
  13. Fran

    Fran Gardener

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    Not sure I remember that winter as being especially bad - if you exclude the hurrican and the snow storm that is :D :D

    But maybe your right - some of the extremes do seem to come in 10 year cycles. Hot dry summers, 1976, (86 - I disremember), 96 and 2006. Not so sure about the winters though.
     
  14. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    I remember it well! It was the night of Thursday 15th and morning of Friday 16th of October. I enjoy normal storms and as I don't sleep much I was sitting in our lounge from 2 a.m. onwards and watching the storm.

    I was in an armchair with my feet up, no lights on and listening to the radio whilst watching the trees in the garden waving in the wind. It had been raining fairly lightly but around 3.15 the wind picked up and the rain started coming down heavily. At about 3.35 the wind got very strong and was howling quite strongly and the branches of the trees all started to bend towards the north west. At that time the radio station I was listening to went off the air but we still had electricity. After 10 minutes of the trees bending with the wind the howling stopped suddenly and the trees straightened up. It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds before the wind came back even stronger and bent the trees to the north east. I then saw one of our 60ft tall silver birch trees gradually tilt over. Very slowly it tilted more and more towards the house and I could see the ground rising up behind it. It was gradually tearing its roots out of the ground and after it had slowly tilted to an angle of 45 degrees it suddenly came down with an almighty racket.

    Fortunately for us it was growing 100ft from the house. As it came down it broke two 30ft branches from the tree next to it and landed on our lawn having only missed our 20ft greenhouse by about a foot.

    The bottom of our garden used to be part of an orchard and the fruit trees ran through our garden and our neighbour's garden. When we had a look in the daylight he had lost seven of his fruit trees whilst we hadn't lost any. They were all part of the same original row of trees!!!

    I walked seven miles to work that day as all the roads were blocked. They had cleared them by the evening and Mrs shiney came and picked me up.

    An interesting day :eek: :D
     
  15. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Fran, on second thoughts the winter that I am thinking about was Jan 87, before the so called hurricane
     
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