Streetlife

Yes ,I certainly do remember the storms of 1987.
I had just moved into a new house in harold Hill and my fence was blown down.
Cost me £700.00 to replace it.

was on nightwork. lights went out then eventually got sent home.a few trees down

I had only just started work in the City and remember walking past The Pipers pub and seeing a huge lump of tree on the floor. That was also the night our family got up during the night to find we had no electric and my dad saying 'This reminds me of the war'

Our neighbour's huge cherry tree came down in that storm but fortunately didn't touch our fence.

Also we lost a few well established trees in Thames View which were never replaced.

We had two very tall leylandii trees in our back garden that were there when we moved in, we hated these and so did my neigbour.  They blew down across my neighbours garden destroying two fence panels.  We were both overjoyed and replacing two panels was a small price to pay for getting rid of them.

My neighbour had a chain saw so we spent an enjoyable day cutting these up.

Fortunatly they had a friend who took the logs away to use on their log burning stove they had in their Norfolk cottage

I was working in the Far East - We made several calls home and were told only minor damage to our house.
A friend who looked after it for us got "two Bonnet Hips" replaced. Later the Romford Recorder arrived and we saw all the pictures of massive elm trees down in Raphaels Park - 20 yards from our house.
I had just moved to HongKong - colleagues just sniffed at our pictures and said you wait till our next Typhoon!!!

Lived on 13th floor in a tower block near Victoria Park in Bow. We thought our windows would blow in, it was so noisy, not just the wind but car alarms were going off and various crashing noises could be heard from down below. It was only when we got out into the streets and park, did we see damaged cars, fences and many objects such as pot plants, door mats etc strewn around. In the park, some huge trees that had been there for God knows how many years, were laying on their sides. Their great big roots were raised up in the air at their bottom ends, which were just as amazing to see as their huge branches laying across the grass. I took photos of my then toddler son against them with a not too good camera that went wrong and I have been really upset that I did not have important photos of that dramatic event. I even remember watching Micheal Fish, theTV weatherman,when he smirked and told us about how some worried lady had been in touch about a great storm coming our way and laughed it off. How wrong was he ? I would be interested in your feature and photos if you get any.

Hi Suzie,H
It must have been really frightening to be 13 floors up.
How did you feel@

I remember the electric going off, and my sons had a toy called a gymbo that was a prize not sure if it was from the Dagenham Post, but that went right over the roof of our house, when I went out there were telephone wires hanging down and lots of houses with roof tiles missing.  I was glad that I did not live in our flat on the 15th floor as when it was really windy the water moved down the toilet so goodness knows what it was like with the big storm.

We had just moved away from Seven kings,  to a small village on the high ground between Dover and Folkestone.   Our new home had lost a huge chunk of the back roof.  The fruit trees in the orchard were all lost, A 30ft Green house was ripped apart as the wind lifted and twisted it. Several 200 year old oak and ash trees were ripped from the ground.  Metal roofing sheets from a neighbours building, were flying through the air like frisbees.   We really thought we was going to die that night.  The overhead electricity cables were blown down and we were left with out electricity  for 10 days. Many roads were left un-passable as there were so many trees down accross roads.            

The following day, we went to see the Sealink ferry that had been beached off the Warren at Folkestone.
The next  village to ours, of Capel-le-Ferne was like a war zone as some houses had walls and roofs missing.  The caravan sites along the cliff top had lost most of the caravans, as they had just rolled and rolled.  The wind speed was recorded at 123mph.

Theresa S,
You could write a book about that experience.
You must have been so scared.

Wow Theresa S sounded really scary!!

Raymond P,  Linda H,  It was the most frightening experience of my life.  We had a smaller storm  a couple of years after.  We only had minor damage then.  It was a complete catalogue of disaster in the first few years of living there.  We moved away in 1999 to Norfolk and now have the threat of the sea, with certain weather conditions/ tides.

My toddler son slept right thru the night but me and the husband were up looking out through our various windows from our high vantage point in the tower block, looking down at different views of the area. And yes, we were frightened. we knew we were experiencing a storm like no other and felt for anyone caught out in it like emergency workers - sirens and alarms were going off everywhere. I do remember thinking thank God that storm was happening during the night and not the day. Having those unexpected winds happening, say, mid afternoon, kids out and most people going about their business, trying to travel on transport - well, the consequences and fatalities that could have occurred with that wind, in the daytime did not bare thinking about! Trees were replanted and properties repaired and replaced but it could have been a lot worse for number of lives lost.

I lived on the 10th floor of Oban house on the Gascoigne then. It's the only time in my life I have been frightened of the weather. We made a cup of tea and watched the tea slide around in the cup. We felt the whole block swaying, and then we watched all the lights go out over London, and there were cars moving along the road sideways, with no one in them. I phoned my mother the next day to see how she had got on, and she said "what storm?". They lived in Dorset and had slept through the whole thing.

You will know Maggie L that experiencing dramatic weather conditions such as that storm, high up in your block is totally different then those living below. The wind hit the windows so hard, it actually felt like someone was repeatedly pounding on them. We were on the 13th in a block high rise of 20 floors and we too felt the slight movement of the building as it was hit by 125mph winds. You don't easily forget that, do you ?

The storms were about the worst this country had had for a very long time.
There was a tree outside a school down the road from me which had been there for many many years.
It was lying on it's side.The force needed to knock that tree over was tremendous and it made me wonder what a force like that could do.Most people were indoors which was great but the damage do trees,on railway tracks etc etc was the worst I can remember.

The reason so many great trees were lost, was that they were still in full leaf when the storm hit.  A few weeks later and it would have been very different for the trees.

I do.  My mum only had single glazed windows at the time.  Our road, in Grays, was fairly untouched.

The day before we were due to fly to Spain  4 adults and 9 children. for a holiday.       none of us had flown before , and wondered why we had a larger plane than we were meant to have .   we also had to keep our seat belts on all the way and the air stewards were having a bumpy time going along the isles .     when the plane landed the passengers clapped ! we clapped too ignorant to it all ,   we didnt know you clapped .   we got of the plane and someone kissed the tarmac . .anyway we arrived to a cold dull spain , and next paper we read stated the hurricane back in England ...........yes we flew through it . but happily as we did know the difference . 

I was living in a flat in Woolwich, on the Connaught Estate. I was lying in bed and the windows, which were huge, looked liked they were bowing in and it felt like the whole block was swaying. I was alone in the flat (apart from my dog who was snoring under the covers so he wasn't much comfort!) and I was really scared. It was so noisy outside and so desolate apart from bins and all sorts of debris being blown around.

In the park on Meads Lane, several large trees were uprooted.  In the row of houses opposite, damage seemed limited to a few lost roof tiles.  This surprised me.

I was living in a tower block at the time and woke up to find that I had no electricity.  I got ready for work and drove to Holloway.I was wondering why there was nothing on the roads and when  I got to work I was early and everyone came in late and it was only as the other staff came in and told me about it that I knew anything.  I had seen no result of the storm on the roads and I had slept through the storm!

It's a date I'll never forget - mainly because it was my birthday!
I was woken at around 4am by a dreadful grinding noise. I jumped out of bed and looked out of the window just in time to see the whole end ridge of the roof fall past and on to the new car! I ran downstairs in my dressing gown to move the car before the rest of the roof came down on it, sitting on a seat covered in glass and debris where it had gone straight through the sun roof, with my husband screaming at me that it was only a car and not to be so stupid. It was too late anyway as every body panel bar one had to be replaced. 
I then looked round and realised how dangerous it was as tiles were coming down all over the place and there were dustbins bits of fences and all sorts flying past me down Rainham Road.
At this point the next door neighbour came out to see what was going on and the butcher just along the road arrived as he had been called out to his alarm that was going off. The three of them all then ended up at the butchers for the next hour, as he had a bottle of scotch in the back of the shop! Leaving me at home listening to the horrendous noise and waiting, terrified, for the chimney to fall in (it didn't luckily).
By the morning the back fence was down, there was debris all over the garden, a mature shrub had been blown right out of the ground, roots and all, and the greenhouse in the middle of it all - not a scratch!
Ruined my birthday plans that I'd taken the day off for, and to this day although I love to watch storms, thunder lightening etc. when the wind really starts to howl.......

Yes we rember it.I lived  on the 14th floor of a tower block ,in strartford,and that week council came and fixed a metal cross between my front room windows,has they moved with out it,even thow we had a laff about it,it save them windows,because that strom,would sure blow them in,was very scarey,i couldent sleep i made a pot of tea and stayed in the bathroom all nite,only room that did not have a window.my other harf slept all way throw it and so did my kids.next day the billbroads across the road had blown down,few tress up rooted over the park.window had blown in at the shops,and looking out 14th floor you could see fences blown down in ppl,s gardens. Never forget that night,