The Great Storm of 87

[brixtonA23]

As a diminishing hurricane hits the UK. Any stories from the non hurricane , hurricane of nearly 25 years ago?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I remember reading about two rare butterflies that escaped/blew away during the storm and were found dozing, pissed on nibbling at fermented apples.

Couldn't quite believe the devastation. Day off school, so went on the prowl looking at fallen trees in Hove Park and beyond.

There was a much stronger wind a couple of years later, but the ground was relatively dry and there were no leaves on the trees, so not as much devastation.

 

[Southern Scouse]

I remember the ex saying she heard a bang.......
Anyways, being considerate like, I opened the front door and saw three of those old aluminum type dust bins caught in a tornado thingy going round and round about 30/40 feet off the ground.
That was in Rustington. Quite cool I thought, and went back to bed.

 

[otk]

I was living in digs in Brighton at the time, and was due to be on a building site in Aldershot in my lorry at 6.30am., so was up about 5am., blissfully unaware of the carnage going on, other than it was 'a bit blowy'. A fellow resident of the house, who I hadn't spoken to up until then, and was a manager of a KFC was also up to get to work, and his branch was in.....Aldershot! Needless to say neither of us got to work that day...

 

[fire&skill]

Radio Brighton/Sussex transmitter went down, so from about four a.m. onwards Dad and me drank tea whilst listening to GOSBTS on a loop.

Later that morning I climbed across the trees at The Level to get to work in Bond Street.

 

[terryberry1]

It was really windy

 

[Bakesy]

I slept through it!!!!

Woke up to the carnage and had absolutely no idea how i could've slept through that.

 

[oldalbiongirl]

Yes remember it well. We were due to have a foreign exchange student over but they couldnt get to us. Ended up with wk off school and no electic for days. They even set up a burger van up the road from us! My parents couldnt stand it so walked for miles to get a calor gas bottle and a camping stove to cook on. lol

 

[Brightonfan1983]

I slept through it!!!!

Woke up to the carnage and had absolutely no idea how i could've slept through that.

Slept through it too. Always the swot, went to catch the school bus, stepping over bins and branchage, but the driver never showed up.

Health and safety gone mad.

 

[tonymgc]

I can vaguely remember walking through queens park as a 5 year old & being very impressed with the soldiers chopping up the fallen trees.

 

[Since1982]

Front door smashed in by tiles coming off the block of flats we lived in at the time. As the sun came up heard the first chain saw and that sound seemed to be around for weeks. I also remember some spectacular thunder storms the following afternoon which added to the general air of "end of the world is nigh".

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I knew it was seriously windy that night , couldn't sleep because of the howling and blustering against the windows , half expecting the glass shattering into the bedroom at any second. There was a tremendous noise at the front of the house , when I looked out of the lounge window in the flat I could see all the trees down Chatham Place had been uprooted and lying parallel to the road and 4 cars embedded into garden walls. A few seconds later the lights went out and we had no power at least the electricity was finally restored to the Seven Dials area after 5 days. In the morning there were still gale force gusts of wind and I had to walk into work with the wife for a 8am start and it was still pretty hairy especially at the Old Steine with tree debris swirling about in the air.

 

[looney]

I was in a caravan near Newbury, slept all the way through it.

 

[Sompting_Seagull]

slept through it then walked to school as we were supposed to be going to Hampton Court on a coach that day. Remember looking out window and wondering where our back garden fences had all disappeared to. climbed over all the trees blocking the roads and at the time was quite surprised to find the school closed. I was gutted, really wanted to go to that damn maze and ive never been since.

 

[Grassman]

I was in a caravan near Newbury, slept all the way through it.

Now tell us where the caravan landed, anywhere nice?

I was very drunk with a load of school friends at a party near the High Rocks in Tun Wells. Walked home in the early hours thinking christ this is windy. Woke up in the morning to utter carnage - oh, and my head hurt.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

I walked home pissed through it.

Used to get paid weekly on a Thursday so decided to go out clubbing with some workmates. I remember walking out of Brighton station at around 10pm thinking how warm and still it was and one or two of our group were wondering whether it had been worth bringing their jackets along. We went to Night Fever in Ship Street which was upstairs at Smugglers and the first thing anyone knew about it was opening the door to exit the club after 2am to see two of those old metal bins go flying up the road off the ground. I walked from Ship Street back to my then home in Hollingbury Road only stopping to pause to watch two or three trees come down around St Peters. After another came down a police car pulled up and a policeman got out the car looked at the uprooted trees shouted very loudly back inside, "f*** this let's go back to the station," jumped back in and drove off at high speed. We continued on up Ditchling Road walking in the middle as we were getting more freaked out by the violent swaying of the trees and the sounds of unseen masonry crashing to the ground. I got home at about 3am and the first thing I noticed when looking in the mirror was my hair had been completely blown to one side as if I'd just pointed a hairdryer at the left side of my head for a period of time. I climbed into bed to the sound of violently rattling windows before the alcohol kicked in and I passed out.

I had been due in work next day at 9am but my electric radio alarm had failed to go off due to the power cuts and woke up around 11. I may have got a phone call then from the lone person who made it into work but I can't quite remember this bit.

I missed the one in 1990 as I was living in Manchester at the time.

 

[csider]

slept through it, woke up and carnage on the seafront, beach huts every where.i used to live off new church road.

also got off with a bird from school the day before, we were at it on sofa when her mum came in and i have to run off out the back door!!! didnt see the girl again til few days later at school as her phone line was down....!!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I was in a caravan near Newbury, slept all the way through it.

The static park homes over on the Peacehaven/Newhaven border were smashed to bits and ripped apart by wind vortexes.

 

[Seagulls over Lewes]

 

[Deleted User X18H]

CAT 87 J came to prominence in Hove at about 2am it lasted until about 5am. It took with it most of the trees in Hove Park Hangleton Park and Greenleas.

A women in St Keyna Ave in Hove was killed by a falling tree.

No on ever seems to remember the absoulute torrential rainfall the occured about 3pm on the Friday afternoon bucketed down it did haven't seen rain like it in the UK since.

I am pretty sure the Albion played at home on the Saturday.

I was still collecting bits and pieces of Excess Of Loss claims on this (retrocessional) as late as 2004.