I had never seen anything like Xmas eve or experienced anything like it again! I will never fly again because if it!
We were few thousand feet up waiting to land as Gatwick winds were 100mph and flooded. We ended up in Newcastle 45 mins later and it was about 70mph winds their too! The landing was frighting to say the least. I thought my little family was going to be wiped out!
I wanted to do the Pope act getting off that plane and kiss the ground!
The 8 hours down to Gatwick on a coach was rough the wind was challenging esp on A1 as so open!
Got to Garwick and it was like a breeze but the devestation left showed it was a monster of a storm. Cars were floating in carparks! No power in Gatwick packed to brim with holiday makers no place to buy a warm drink as no power and all the toilet out of order!
We made it back thankfully to get coach! So the night I booked in The Sofitel was lost. The coach went to go on a short cut and the river had burst! Three cars were floating in water and bungalows were flooded people in their wellies Xmas eve trying to pump water back out! I felt so sad for these families on xmas eve!
A taxi before us just drove into the flood? Why? It got stuck!
seeing houses in real life flooded is just devestating! I prayed and paryed but the weather has not given the land chance to recover as so sodden.
it took 2.5 hours in end for the bus yo get fromGarwick to Heathrow! A total of 8 hours to get home! 25 hours of traveling because of the storms.
I feel blessed we landed in one piece and theirfore the 25 hrs is nothing compared to being alive. I was shocked how effected Gatwick was though! When they built it did they not take into account storms and flooding of the nearby river? Heathrow down the road was fine!
Or was this the worst storm ever to hit Gatwick?
The next morning, Xmas Day I was so thankful to be home safe and dry, I saw the news that said a woman and DD with taxi driver were moments from death nearly drowned in the floods:(
I dont know if this was the same taxi? But taxi driver we saw from coach could not believe that it drove straight into the middle of it! I just hope they were safe and the passengers must have been terrified by this very stupid decision of taxi driver to even try and drive through it.
I will never forget the storms of Xmas 2013!