[Brighton] 30 years ago today

[Kalimantan Gull]

Was very scared that night and both me and my sister went into my mum and dads bed. In the morning remember Dad trying to saw up the cherry tree that was lying on his car, in the vain hope that he'd get us to school, which considering the other hundred trees lying across Surrenden Road was a forlorn hope indeed

Think that night was the end of the parakeets in Hollingbury

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I slept through it but was woken by my Dad at around 6am as the tree in the neighbours garden was about to go through our roof (neighbours had moved out the day before). My Dad dug a hole in their lawn before making me stand in it and used electrical cable to wrap around me and the tree to keep it upright while he started chopping it down.

Then walked to work at the old Lloyds Bank tower block in Durrington (I was an IT bod), climbing over loads of trees that were down on the Boulevard. When I got to work there were several computer screens that had come from the upper floors on the ground. We were told not to go up the tower block as it was still quite windy at 8am. Ignoring that, went up to the 6th floor where some windows had been blown out and it was like a scene from a scary movie as all this paper and other stuff was flying around the office.

Mrs DCH though has a much more scary tale to tell though as her family were awoken somewhat earlier than planned as the side of their house collapsed in the winds, exposing the lounge and two of the bedrooms to the elements.

 

[happypig]

I was on a stag night and after being told by the boys in blue that our plan to chuck the groom in the rockery pond was a non-starter, I went home and slept through it.
Woke up at about 6.30 needing a wee and decided to head off to work at Withdean Exchange. The journey from my flat in Vere Road took about half an hour as I had to find a route through the fallen trees.
I was the first one in and started to realise things had been a bit lively seeing how many faults had come in overnight.
We'd been on strike a few months earlier and been told by a senior manager that "You can forget any overtime from now on"; with thousands of dropwires down, within a week we had 100+ lads shipped in from all over the country and we were working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day until Christmas and beyond. I earned a small fortune but spent most of it in the pub.

 

[backson]

I was on that school trip shown in Inside Out

 

[Goldstone1976]

I moved house the morning after the night of the storm. Great timing.

 

[pearl]

Was very scared that night and both me and my sister went into my mum and dads bed. In the morning remember Dad trying to saw up the cherry tree that was lying on his car, in the vain hope that he'd get us to school, which considering the other hundred trees lying across Surrenden Road was a forlorn hope indeed

Think that night was the end of the parakeets in Hollingbury

No, no it wasn't, they survived just fine. I had an allotment there at the time, two large trees came down across it

 

[jakarta]

Was up in Cheshire at the time, a section of my Interwoven fence lifted out and a Bin Lid came off. Carnage...

 

[Yoda]

The bedroom next to mine at our next door neighbours had a metal patio table blown through their window. A slight change in wind direction or if it had been from a few meters over, I would have been in a spot of bother.

 

[whitelion]

Just catching up with this thread and just goes to show how lucky we were to get away with the number of casualties that we did.

 

[Bigtomfu]

Was very scared that night and both me and my sister went into my mum and dads bed. In the morning remember Dad trying to saw up the cherry tree that was lying on his car, in the vain hope that he'd get us to school, which considering the other hundred trees lying across Surrenden Road was a forlorn hope indeed

Think that night was the end of the parakeets in Hollingbury

You must have lived very close by. I was in Surrenden Close at the time and our road was blocked off entirely until our neighbour who owned a garden centre supplied the dad's of the road with industrial chain saws to clear the path.

 

[Steve in Japan]

Which means that 30 years ago today I first poked Mrs Chopper.
I spent the night in her sisters flat while they were on holiday.
We slept through the storm (understandable) but when we woke up I looked out the window to see all the carnage outside.
I remember thinking blimey I know I'm good but not that good.

You old romantic, you