storm of 1987

[Nick Waring]

i was only 1month old when the 87 storm hit, dont remember anything

[kimtree]

i was in surrey at the time,working in a partnership with two other school mates doing treework and farming [we lived on the farm]at 3 in the morning the power went off and us lads were sent down the road to see what was happening,first thing we see is an alder blown over into the powerline going to the farm,where its touching the line there's white fire and little white fairys dancing down the trunk must have burned for 2 minites at least.Once that burnt thru and fell to the ground we cut it up and rolled it off the drive.then we thought we better get sum more gear.all around you could hear trees being smashed but couldnt see them.the farm was on top of a small hill and you could see about 10 mile out towards Woking.from there the view was spectacular,transformers blowing and on fire every 5 mins or so the skyline was just lite up,most amazing was a neighbours scots pine about 60ft tall the top was bending down and touching the trunk almost in the middle.after gearing up we went out on the main road and immediatly found a large beech that needed clearing,we ended up clearing three or so beech,just cut and then pull off with the landy then decided it was to dangerous ,just as we went back to the farm another tree fell just in front of us so we dealt with that then an ambulance came along trying to get to the hospital ,a bit up the road was a 6 way roundabout every way was blocked the ambo was going nowhere.once it was light we got a phone call to go down to the council yard[fat chance]and then proceeded to get about 2 months cleanup work from them mostly roadside trees which we climbed first for a week then got a series of pickers from facelift?{not sure if thats correct company}ended up kick starting our tree bussiness big time.the farm we lived on lost about 50 big beech dbh 4- 6 ft average and on the top of the hill 3 big turkey oak one of which landed front to back on one of me mates car,apart from that no other damage to buildings but just down the road a huge industrial shed was twisted and destroyed like it was nothing

[Grimpeur]

I was 9 got out of bed whinging to my parents about the window creaking.

 

They said what are you on about the windows fine go back to bed.

 

I didn't, the window a great big sash thing blew down right on my bed.

[Amelanchier]

Do ya'll ever get hurricanes?

 

Nah we can't MB, we're not in the right latitudes. We occaionally get hurricane force winds but they're called windstorms because they don't have the same origins and mechanics.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane

[MasterBlaster]

Do ya'll get tornados? No?

[Andy Collins]

We get small tornadoes, in fact quite a lot, tho not on the scale reported from the States. Tho they do cause a lot of localised damage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4725279.stm

[Mr Ed]

I was 14 at the time, took about a month off schol to go down with my Father and all his guys helping out a former worker who had set up his own business in London village. You could'nt buy a chainsaw for love nor money at the time. the devestation was unbelieveable. SevenOaks became Oneoaks.

[Andy Collins]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/16/newsid_3174000/3174374.stm

[Quickthorn]

I knew one old boy who headed down south, along with loads of others, to cash in on the clean up..only, so much timber hit the market at once that the bottom fell out of it. He told me he made just about enough to pay for his Matador, and that was it.

[Tree cutter Stu]

i was about 5 i lived up the road from buzz on the canal in brookwood surrey. I remember waking up tree's where falling down all over the place. I was so scared i had to get in my mum and dads bed to get back to sleep lol best thing was no school for a while.