My Hometown Due To Be Hit With High Winds, Echoes of 1987 (A personal report)

In 1987, on the night of the 15th-16th of October, a storm blew in across my hometown, and caused chaos. It had wider effects than those felt here, and actually did significant damage both sides of the English Channel. Eighteen people in the UK lost their lives, and four in France, and many more were injured by falling trees, buildings, and other debris that had been caught up in the gusting winds, exceeding eighty miles per hour in speed.

Homes and other buildings were damaged, some by the force of the wind alone, and others by having trees and telegraph poles dropped on them. I was about two and a half at the time, and slept through the storm. I was agog the morning after, when we ventured outside, every chimney pot for as far down the road as I could see, had been demounted, and dashed to the pavement, and all the fences were bent, or broken, or scattered around the street. Car windows had a plethora of debris sticking through them.

These things I remember, but it was only later, when I was older, that I was able to connect with the wider impacts of the storm, that I understood that people had died while I slept soundly, despite the chaos outside my window.

I am now twenty eight years old, and if the met office and the BBC, as well as several other news sources are to be believed, we are due another severe storm. Now, many of our American members here, will be asking what the big deal is, and I can well understand that. Lets face it, not many places on the planet get quite the kicking that the US does from its weather. However, that storm of 1987 was the worst for three hundred years in my nation, and we are apparently getting another one, due to sweep in on Sunday night, into Monday morning. Our homes and infrastructure are not built to withstand such rare occurrences as a three hundred year storm, which is why, in 1987 a local couple were known to have said "We woke up because of the noise, and wondered why the wallpaper looked funny. Turned out the wall itself was shaking because of the wind!".

This is a concern, because many of the buildings here in my hometown are of 1800s construction, and have not changed fundamentally since their initial erection. Chimney pots and roofing tiles can become missiles under certain circumstances, as can most anything that is not bolted down well, which is why my folks and I are clearing our balcony garden away and battening down the hatches over the weekend.

However, I fully intend to be out and about during the run up to this storm, and I am going to ATTEMPT to get some on the spot visual record with my crappy little compact camera. I do not want to sleep through this storm. I want to be awake to bear witness to its awesome might. I want to see its effects, make records, and I would ultimately like to be able to stand before its power and feel it for myself.

Here are some links that will show a little of the effects of the last big storm.

www.channel4.com...

This one has a decent video from channel 4, explaining some of the damage and the situation the storm left behind.

en.wikipedia.org...

A wiki, because its rude not to.

www.metoffice.gov.uk...

Met office fact file on the effects of the last big storm.

You might want to check out this....
www.abovetopsecret.com...

and this.....
www.abovetopsecret.com...


Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel


Good job finding those threads!

However, what I should probably have made clear, is that I am going to post any video or photographic data that I get during this weekend, as part of my thread so that it stands as a complete, morons guide to the event!

reply to post by TrueBrit

Who you calling a moron!


Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel



Well me for a start! I fully intend to go for a stroll in the worst of the weather. I have a face sheild and helmet, some padding and so on for the soft bits, knee protection for if I am blown off my feet, and a poncho to keep the water out of my clothes. These are not the acts of a person of vast intellect

reply to post by TrueBrit


Moron.....



All that gear and you call yourself a True Brit!!!
That's like an American football player saying he's tougher than a rugby player!!

Rainbows
Jane

Please add your thoughts to one of the existing threads - examples already listed or here.

Thank you.

Closed.

Edit: After a short discussion we reconsidered the closure of the thread allowing it to stay open as a way for the OP to do some local up to the minute reporting.

Let's see how it goes.

reply to post by Gemwolf


Thank you!
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by Gemwolf


Thanks very much Gemwolf.

Its 13:51 here at the moment, and even though we are more than a day away away from the arrival of the weather system of main concern, the weather has already taken a turn for the damp and dark, with thickening cloud overhead, and a drizzling rain. The breeze is already stiffening. It is however, oddly warm considering those things. I am going to go and pick up my camera later, and take some shots, and possibly video after work. These will provide a "before" to counterpoint the swiftly approaching "after".

I should point out, that for some of the period between now and Monday morning, when the storm is due to hit hardest, I will be out and about, and have no mobile access to the internet, so if I do not post tomorrow during our day time, that will be because I am going to be at a friends place. They are closer to both the sea, and town center than I am, and at a higher elevation, so the effect of the wind will be more likely to show, and show big there. Plus, on a personal note, my buddy, she lives alone, and may need some help battening down the hatches, clearing loose items off her balcony and so on.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I like the idea of your thread. We had a terrible storm two winters ago, and although it was scary there was something exciting about it too. Thankfully no-one died, but a lot of people suffered a lot of damage to their homes.

Hopefully we won't get any photos of you with an oak tree on your head, just some before and after shots. Right?!

Take care, stay safe x

Hi
Remember it well the "storm" of 1987, l was woken up at 4am by something that sounded like a train outside my apartment. I live in a mansion block of apartments in central london, and the doors into each block were swing type doors. The wind had blown both doors flat open, and the noise was the force of the wind. The road is tree lined on both sides, which still had heavy folliage, and as l looked out of the window, all the leaves were being blown off of the trees vertically, which gave what light there was a strange green colour.

We had no power, so a shower was out of the question, however l had water in the kitchen powered by gas, washed there and dried my hair by the gas fire.

I left for work on foot, trees were down the length of the road, down side streets where walls and scaffolding had come down onto the road and vehicles.

I climbed over branches and some trunks, got into work and organised the office, there were no trains into London, No buses and no underground train system until they got the power back up at 1pm.

There was a place called Sevenoaks in a county called Kent, that had been built up around these 7 very ancient oak trees. After the storm only one remained standing.

The storm forecasted for Sun/Mon may not reach the same level as this one, but the 1987 one was not predicted and when a caller into the BBC weather forecast suggested a hurricane was on it's way, it was dismissed. Since then we tend to go over the top with our warnings.

Breaking news on sky and bbc....storm warning has been sort of upgraded and warning people to stay away from coastal areas due to 'overtopping'

Rainbows
Jane

BBC website is showing possible "80 mph" gusts.
Not sustained winds of 80mph ... but gusts of 80mph. That means the sustained winds will be maybe 50 or 60 mph ?

Now, I don't want to diminish the extreme upset & psychological damage caused when a milk bottle is blown over. Or maybe a wheelie bin. Or even a roof slate knocked off, perhaps a tree knocked over.

But this storm, as forecasted, isn't newsworthy to any extent whatever.

ATS Thread

Is the search engine on ATS really that bad folks

reply to post by TrueBrit


I am here with you and yours, will continue to check back periodically. One thing to watch for is a greenish or yellow tinge to the atmosphere around sunset, well even during the day for that matter. It is usually an odd color before a major tornadic or hurricane force wind driven event.

This IS a hurricane force event about to come down on you, so take all the precautions possible from flying debris and above all else stay safe and use your highest intuition and listen to your gut.

Be sure and draw up enough water for a few days. This includes pets. You may or may not lose power but sometimes the power companies shut it down until the all clear rather than risk having downed power lines or dangerous electrical situations even fire.

Take care of your elderly or disabled neighbors and help them to prepare and to be calm and secure in that you will check back on them after the storm passes, and it will pass.

Stay safe and can't wait to see the pics and videos.

Hope for the best.

Peace

OK in fact there IS a hurricane forecast, more like a typhoon or cyclone actually.
Someone told me it will pull your homes out of the ground and fly them to Kansas.
Be safe - it's kinder to destroy your cats, dogs and old people now before the hurricane comes.
A bucket of water is quick for kitty, shoot your dog and strangle Grandma.
Quickly quickly before the catastrophe cometh.

TrueBrit

This is a concern, because many of the buildings here in my hometown are of 1800s construction, and have not changed fundamentally since their initial erection. Chimney pots and roofing tiles can become missiles under certain circumstances, as can most anything that is not bolted down well, which is why my folks and I are clearing our balcony garden away and battening down the hatches over the weekend.

I would have throught many older houses were of a more solid construction than flimsy modern stuff. Well mine is. It is a cottage circa 1840 with great thick solid Yorkshire stone walls

This storm is not expected to be as bad as the Oct '87 one - though inland gusts over 60mph look likely, and higher on coasts. Given trees are still in full leaf, and we've not had any serious gales across southern England for a while, there's likely to be some disruption from trees coming down. Worryingly, the worst of the weather looks like being around the Monday morning rush hour.

However ...... there is still a fair be of variation in model predictions and simple put we don't know yet how bad it'll be or where the worst winds will be. Also, it's uncertain as to whether there will be a sting jet (as occured in 87 - and the reason that storm was worse than forecast). Come Sunday night, we'll know more!

btw similar or worse storms hit Scotland every year.

Righty oh...

The working day is done, so I can upload some things to my ATS uploads section, and show you a couple of images of what my immediate area looks like in relatively normal conditions. Since I am unsure as to the status of my friends internect connectivity at this time, I will have to say that more may have to come after I return on Monday. We shall see....




Thats a very short video showing the mucky looking sky as smaller weather fronts scramble to get out of the way of the fat boy flying right toward us.

Heres a still...




Edit to add:

I understand my watch better than my camera. When I take a picture containing my watch, trust that and not the time stamp