The "Great Storm" of 15th/16th October 1987

[Sam Tyler]

I'm sure most of us on here recall that night 35 years ago of the so-called "Great Storm"? All fears were allayed by Michael Fish in his weather forecast on 15th October stating that there was no hurricane on its way. Abit of a shot in the foot that was!

Whilst those up North may have been largely unaffected, those of us down South woke the next morning to all manner of damage caused by the hurricane that travelled across Southern England.

I certainly remember it very well. Annie and I had moved into our house less than three months earlier and whilst our house remained intact the same couldn't be said for a number of mighty Oak and Sycamore trees that lined our road. Thankfully a good number of the remaining trees survive to this day.

I did make a vain attempt to get to work that day but with both ends of our road blocked by fallen trees I was getting nowhere fast. The telephone lines being down also prevented communication to family or work.

Just to give a flavour of what we had in our road here are some pics of the damage that was caused:















All of the above were indicative of the damage caused by the storm and it was a number of days before the road was cleared and passable again. However all residents along the entire road were lucky in that no houses or cars were struck by the fallen trees but from what I recall there had been loss of life in other areas.

What are other members' recollections or experiences of that night?

Sam.

[Cartman]

No recollection of it at all, Sam. As you said, it was solely confined to the South of England and didn't affect the North at all

[Perfect Pseudonym]

Yes we had a good old gust in the East Greater London environs.

But enough of the old curry nights back then, we also had some (not a) hurricane action as well.

Was still at the old homestead then, and me and my mother ended up staying up all night and watching whatever we had on VHS. Thankfully the leccy wasn't affected. Meanwhile my brother snoozed his way through it all. And despite being at the back of the house, he was completely untroubled by the sound of next door's but one brick built garage being demolished. Otherwise no significant damage to our house or any others nearby. Although some gable ended houses a few roads away seemed to have lost the end walls where the lofts were. Oh, the advantage of being mid-terraced hip roof.

And then I had to go to work the next morning as I had finally received written confirmation of a new job, so needed to get in to hand in my notice so that I had enough notice period to work. Getting up to Liverpool Street was fine. The actual Hammersmith & City line between there and Euston Square wasn't. Despite mainly being underground. Never could work that out. Anyway, eventually got in, enjoyed the free lunch given by the management to those who could get in, and then handed my notice in.

I would say "great days" at this point, but they probably weren't.

[Nightfly]

Apart from it being a bit windier than usual, we escaped this in Yorkshire and it was therefore a shock to hear how badly it had affected the South when watching news reports, particularly the tragic deaths. I seem to remember there was the infamous stock market crash named Black Monday around the same time.

That evening's BBC News was an interesting one with Michael Buerk not holding back in his grilling of Ian McCaskill.

[Gene Hunt]

I do remember the story of Sevenoaks losing 6 of the 7 trees that gave the town its name. I don't recall seeing too much carnage in the Midlands, apart from the odd few fence panels being taken out, but do remember seeing many photos like the ones you've posted above Sam as well as scenes of a ferry running aground in Folkstone and a capsized ship at Dover. The worst storm in almost 300 years I believe.

Very memory provoking thread 

Gene.

[Dirty Epic]

Some good photos of quite an event there Sam.

I remember that Michael Fish forecast and the subsequent news broadcasts but being a youth in the North West at that time it was strange it caused that amount of damage 'Down South' when we were totally untouched.

I suppose the forecasting technology was a bit primitive back then and the 'no problem' forecast from Mickey Fish is very memorable too.

Hopefully nobody here suffered any issues (or loss) due to this event.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Funnily enough I was watching the Channel 5 documentary on this storm last night which was quite interesting with a few bits of 1987 Britain history leading up (Trench coat wearing and champagne quaffing Yuppies, Home computers with the games on them, Mrs Thatcher, Red Porsche 944's, stock market shirt and tie wearing blokes with Timmy Mallett glasses talking stocks and shares pyscho babble and with brick sized phone in one hand and pointing with the other).

But back to topic, I was attending 6th form college in those days and that evening thought it was a bit extra blustery, and my dad saying when he came home from work (he worked outside for BT) that he had a "bad feeling" about that evening;

I'm not sure I remembered Michael Fish's broadcast live that night, but everybody has seen a hundred times over since - Poor Man!

The next morning we could see all the devastation on the news with Kent and many Southern areas with trees fallen on dozens of cars, roofs ripped off of houses and caravans snapped from anchorages at sites and blown around like plastic toys. So many trees were lost too together with floods.

I still had to go to college, but I don't remember an awful lot of damage round my town, apart from one house fence that was flat on its front lawn. We were OK and dad's motor was OK, although I remember the gale still blowing outside into lunchtime while a lot of us took refuge in the library and got on with college work.

Some of the footage on the doco showed a car which couldn't stop in time and hit a fallen tree with the horrid smack sound. The footage of Ian McCaskill getting a grilling by Michael Buerk was a bit cringeworthy, you could see McCaskill was tired and surprisingly answered the questions as best as he could.

18 people died in that, although many have said it was a good job it happened at night or the death toll could have been much higher. The stock market crash in the UK was partially attributed by some to the storm closure. Cue the footage of the "city boys" with their heads in the hands at their desks. Cost the insurance industry a fair bit.

I believe the accuracy of the weather report was down to old fashioned equipment which didn't pick the forecast properly and "Mike" unfortunately was never given an up to date situation to report on and only worked with what he had. I believe what the lady who rang the BBC had heard was something from an outside source which was more accurate and somebody she knew or a relative was working for them. The Met Office certainly had to "Learn from this" after that.

Wonder who that lady was the rang the BBC........

[Vienna]

Great photos there Sam 

I do recall watching Breakfast TV the next morning and seeing reports of fallen trees strewn across a large part of southern England. It all seemed strange as most central and northern areas were unaffected by it. As a kid I remember being scared stiff by a storm in January 1976, which apparently did a fair amount of damage across a wider area of the UK.

Vi

[Del Boy]

I remember it well. There was the infamous Michael Fish incident where he said "don't worry there won't be a Hurricane "and we got hammered across London and the home counties. I did my paper round the next day and there was loads of damage. Worst I've seen from a storm.

[Three Litre]

I don’t remember there being too much damage, think the bad stuff was only in a few areas.

Flooding seems more of an issue these days, bit of rain and roads get swamped. Was delayed on the M11 last week and it only rained for a few hours.