Memories of the Great Storm of 1987

[January24]

Do you remember it? Where were you?

I always referred to it as a hurricane but apparently it was actually a cyclone.

I was a young teacher in London in a shared house and I thought it was the end of the world! We got a week off from it though. I remember ringing my parents in Wales the day after to say I was fine and not to worry and they laughed as they hadn’t even had a storm where they were!

I remember it very well indeed, and remember Michael Fish on the weather forecast the night before. We woke up early in the pitch black, with a power cut, and a terrific roaring noise outside.

The fences in our garden were flattened, and the shed roof moved on its frame. How it didn't blow off altogether I don't know. We lost a tile off the house roof and only found out when a wet patch appeared on one of the beds, where rainwater had come through the ceiling. I think pretty much everybody had some damage to their house or garden. I had to forcibly stop exH from trying to prop the fence up come daylight, it was too dangerous with all the debris flying about. We came off lightly here though (home counties) compared with everybody south of London. Sevenoaks in Kent lost 6 out of 7 of its famous trees.

That was the year we moved into our first home.
Lived on a street that acted as a wind tunnel and at 27 years old I hid under the duvet yet could still hear the wind howling outside and rattling on the glass of the single glazed wooden framed windows....by what a night.

Next day the journey to work, just over 20 miles away was like being in a maze, got so far and had to turn round and try a different way. Eventually parked up around half a mile from where I worked and walk in.

I was 5 and living in Germany at the time so we dodged it. I do remember the Burns storm (1990). Was quite scary at the time. Even trees in our garden got uprooted.

I know 1987 was a tragic year overall.

I was living in South London. I thought my windows would blow in, they were old sashes and the noise from them was shocking. That plus crash after crash as many of the trees in my road fell. Alarms going off, it was unbelievably noisy . The next morning I walked out to try and get to work and half the parked cars were flattened under trees. No trains running so I had to walk home again.
I lost a big tree in yesterday’s storm , it was pretty noisy here last night, but nothing like the hurricane.

It was definitely a hurricane. I was working in the post department of a high rise building. We were looking up at all the stuff whirling about. Was sent home early because of the storm very scary bus ride

I remember it being referred to as The Hurricane at the time
don’t remember the aftermath too much but was 6 and remember the noise waking us up in the night and my mum lighting candles

I recall wondering what all the fuss was about... seems that UK weather only really happens if it hits London and the Home Counties.

As I said, defined by wind speed.

@Neriah It was one of the biggest storms in years - I think the peak gusts on the Kent and Sussex coats were reached 120mph so it was a big one by any measure.

I was 13 and at boarding school in Suffolk. We had a grove of rare trees which were next to my boarding house and I remember a really wild night with all the windows rattling and not getting a lot of sleep and lots of crashing sounds and then the following morning loads of the rare trees had fallen down and the grounds of the school were a total mess - there was tree debris everywhere. I remember us boarders had to escort some of the day girls to the bus - one of the younger girls was so small and light that she nearly got blown away!

I seem to recall also that it was extremely useful for tree research as for example up til then (I think?) It was thought that tree roots of big trees like those at Sevenoaks went deep but they released the were quite shallow and spread. So something good came out of the devastation of loosing so many mature trees.

Great account - thanks for sharing! Where were you?

It's always surprising how different conditions can be over a reasonably short distance. I don't really remember it, other than my cousins in Sussex being affected. I was jealous as they were off school. We were only about 50 miles north and 100 miles west of them.

I live in West Cornwall now and there was a lot of damage apparently. Another massive storm in 1981 which claimed the lifeboat and all its crew was far less severe where the coastguard was thirty miles east - they didn't realise how strong the wind was.

I remember the taxi driver taking me back from dinner with a friend warning me, when I said I usually cycled, that I should stay off the bike for a couple of days as there was very fierce weather on the way. And then the next day at work getting a circular from our usually rather laid-back boss saying anything in our storage basement that could be damaged by water should be lifted above ground level in case the coming storm brought heavy rain that would back-up in the storm drains. So we were all pretty well prepared and expecting it.

In Dublin.

Thanks, Met Eireann.

My mate arrived at my house shaken as a billboard blew off in front of his car and went under the wheels.

I remember walking home and having to hang onto my younger sister to stop her being blown away.

I was 7 and our fence blew down. That's all I remember.

I was a month into L6th. DM made my walk to school because I was in 6th form (4 miles across London) but let DSis (4th year) stay at home. Never did understand why "year before GCSEs" was less important than "year before A Levels".

Needless to say, there were no buses or trains running. Got to school. There were few than 20 kids in, from over 2000, and a handful of teachers, so I walked home again and hanged up with the cool U6th formers from my direction. We walked down King's Rd - eerily empty - and I bought a Eurythmics cassette from Our Price.

And my grandparents' chimney blew off, near Brighton, and smashed my DGF's beloved Volvo. His insurance company got him a Golf instead. He never liked it, grumbled about it until he died about 4 years later.

I was 16. It was frightening. The floors in my mum's house were moving. Lost 80% of roof tiles. Local trees devastated

I was twelve and we were camping in Blackpool - my mum and dad were experienced campers.

The tent collapsed in on itself with us all an inside, the warden running the campsite helped others to get us out.

The warden told all the campers that if they wanted to continue their holiday he would move all their kit to a barn to dry off - his sister ran a b&b in Blackpool and we could go there for a few days.

My sister and I were very excited about the B&B as we had never been to a hotel before.

The insurance company did not pay out for the damage to the tent as a hurricane was an act of god

I was at Poly in Newcastle so personally unaffected. but remember putting the TV on the morning and the breakfast presenters were all there looking a bit stunned and dishevelled. When I called home (Kent) that evening, my dad's garage door had been buckled by the wind, lots of rooves badly damaged and greenhouses smashed - I could scarcely believe it. One of the cross-channel ferries was washed ashore. Accounts from friends and family that it had been quite terrifying.

We were on a late morning train from Wakefield to Kings Cross as we were flying to the West Indies the next day. The weather was fine in Wakefield but the train kept stopping and literally took hours and hours and we didn't arrive in London until evening.
Kings Cross was surreal. It was packed with people just standing and staring and we were all escorted off the train. The atmosphere actually felt threatening.
I felt sorry for everybody.

we lived in New Addington in surrey which is a community built on an escarpment going up from a valley, one road in and out to get to Croydon.

we lost ridge tiles from our roof, back gate went for a burton, no electric from 2am till 8am,

bins crashing down the street not wheelies metal ones, managed to get some milk as the milkman had got into Addington before the storm started

next day local park had lost a long row of massive trees

9am picked up the phone rang work and said no way could i get in on the bus as that was my transport then

I remember walking to school the next day and so many walls down, slates off roofs and tree branches and bins all over the pavement and road. The house at the end of our road had its roof caved in.

I remember it feeling very exciting

Got to work in Enfield but all windows in my building had smashed. Couldn't get home as all trains had stopped . Everyone pitched in to sort out the priorities

Yes it was. But it was one. I didn't say it wasn't "big". But there are severe weather conditions in the north frequently that barely get a mention. Six feet of snow in the North, barely a mention. Three flakes in London, its gridlock chaos worthy of days of news. Walls down, trees down, roofs off etc - I'm counting three times since six weeks ago here. But not nearly as newsworthy as Kent or Sussex.