Do any of you have any stories of the Great Storm of this year?


Note the Townsend ship in the back ground
This image of the turret area shows how strong the storm was. walls and fences completely destroyed. the following images are even stronger.


The other side of the turret area, demolished.

WHEN IN ROME YOUNG MAN.......WHEN IN ROME...........

Wow

I was living in North London, we had hardly any damage around my way, a few trees down and that was about it it. I walked to work (I lived 10 minutes away) and found I was the only that could get in. I spent the rest of the day taking calls from everyone who couldn’t get there!

www.homestead.com/askjeane

My husband was working on a ferry during the storm, so I was at home with the children. There were some terrible crashes and bangs going on and I did that brave thing called diving under the duvet.

In spite of the awful noise we were lucky only a few tiles off the roof and a lost fence. Next door lost about a third of their roof.



Old age is a wonderful thing.................................at times

i remember that well ian, i lived in loughton essex, slept throught it all, woke up a bit confused no radio noise or kettle boiling.

got in the car then was confronted by a tree lying sideways blocking my path.

call me over suspicious but i suspected that something was afoot.

Yes Ian I was at sea on the e/clearway doing some welding that was on the thursday night and I was asked by the captain what we could do as some of the HGV had fallen on their sides and were lieing ontop of the handrail stoping us from tieing up the tug was holding us upright at the time,all i could do was to cut off anything hanging over the side of the ship with my cuting gun, and with a rope around me and my mate that is what we done and it all droped into the sea ,but still could not get along side the tug went off because there was a ship going down in the westen opening,and it did go down with the lost of life of the crew,i have never been out in seas like that before and have no wish to again. I did think at one time this is it,we are done for.We stayed on her till sunday doing tem/repairs to get her off for a refit.That is the week I done the most working hours of my life 125hours.

Last edited at 10:13pm on 29/07/10 by Vic Matcham

This is a shot of the end of the Admiralty Pier.
Between the railings you can just see the mast of the ship that sank off the Breakwater, the Sumnia.







WHEN IN ROME YOUNG MAN.......WHEN IN ROME...........

Yes she would not take the tow line her captain said they could make it and did not want to pay out for the line,and that is what happen two of them was from the same family.

Amazing stuff, I was still at school and really just remember the endless trees that were down in Thanet !

I was on the FE7 from Dover to Zeebrugge that night. It was a bit lumpy to say the least. I had a good dinner and a few Brandies and went to my bunk. I had to sleep with my back to the bulkhead and using my arms and legs to say in the bunk! Still, I had a good nights rest eventually.

I woke up several hours later and, looking at the sky from my bunk thought, "blimey, that's the greyist sky I've ever seen", and then the FE7 rolled and the sky came into view. I was looking at the sea!!!

The Chief Purser had organised brekkie in the cabin for me, and a full English with a big mug of tea hit the spot for me. It took a total of about 12 hours to do the crossing and get into Zeebrugge harbour, so definitely not for the feint hearted for sure.

When I got home we'd had a very large tree blown down onto the drive. If I'd been at home my car would have been crushed.


Last edited at 11:03pm on 29/07/10 by Sid Perkins

I was in germany as a child, and we had these massive blocks of flats in front of us had the roof felt blown off and some off the school as well

totally awesome.. school cancelled for a few days!!
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11406519

and the block we lived in is in the far left.. how scary is that?!


has joined the institution of marriage!!

Last edited at 1:45am on 30/07/10 by Jenni Sutton

On the left hand were lots of flats, and I would say that about 7 or 8 had their roof taken off.. and the naafi was leaking..

infact.. this is quite scary.. lots of guys and gals on facebook who remember my school.. that is scary.. lol

has joined the institution of marriage!!

I was working for Natwest at their London Computer Centre then; we were working nights and didn't know anything about it really.

The day-shift came in and said it's windy out there (what an understatement).

On the way home to Barnet - through various North London suburbs, trees were laying all over the place - the street I lived in at the time, in East Barnet, had three trees across the road; I eventually got home and had a good sleep, not realising the extent of the damage everywhere.




Roger

I was a new cllr and did my bit for the community helping people

also called into the centre at District council, which swung into action.

trees down all over
trains disrupted


what a night/day

I went round with the ex labour cllr geoff howarth(anyone rember him?)

Last edited at 12:34pm on 31/07/10 by Keith Sansum

Woke up about 3.30 to the sound of shattering glass, and this was the sight. Lots of big panes broken, and frame twisted. Glass all over the lawn (still finding small pieces).
I think our electricity was off for 4 - 5 days at least, the elec board put cables through our letterboxes in the end, connected to a generator.
Luckily our neighbour had camping equipment and kept camper van in our close boiling kettles etc.
All the roads in and out of Tilmanstone were blocked by fallen trees, but due to the efforts of local people with chain saws etc. cleared sufficiently for traffic to get through.
As it was October, Bob patched up the greenhouse with glass from Deal to stop the cold affecting the plants.
It was not until about 6 years ago we managed to get a new greenhouse.

The officers in Port Control that evening only had standard issue bycycle clips, the following week they hade double strength plus elastic bands.


Notice the granite walls missing on the left, they must have weighed about 4 ton each, nearly all the reinforced tarmac went aswell.

WHEN IN ROME YOUNG MAN.......WHEN IN ROME...........

Sorry Ian, I can`t understand how I missed this interesting thread today of your`s mate? Some good shot`s there, and I got some photograph`s somewhere`s with trees and chimney pots down, as well as the sea along Shakespeare beach the morning after. The main thing I remember was the wind blowing through the hedgerows behind us, and when I went out in the garden in the middle of the night, the strong wind was so warm. Anyway, blew our fence down, and smashed it up.

I really do not see the signal.

I was in hospital, expecting my last daughter. The room I was in looked out onto an enclosed courtyard, so it was slightly protected from the wind. Nevertheless, the wind banged against it in huge gusts and I can remember thinking "That wind's a bit strong."

After Christmas, when I was travelling to Dover, I was amazed to see swathes of trees flattened along the roads. I'd been told about the storm, but as a busy new mum with a very premature and special-care baby, and with two other small daughters to care for too, I hadn't until then truly realised what a massive storm it had been.

The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk

Last edited at 9:00am on 31/07/10 by MaggieSK

I slept through it all. Remember seeing dustbins etc, scattered about as I went out the door and thinking 'it;s been a bit windy!'. It was only when I found Whitfield Hill blocked by trees, more trees down near Kearsney Station that I realised it was bit more than the normal gale. Was one of several cars that drove under a tree that was bridging the road near the old Temple Ewell Planning Office (never have a camera when you need one).

Having got to Whitfield, via Lydden Hill and the A2, I then had to go back home to locate most of a Plum tree that had gone missing from the garden overnight. It had gone two gardens along and was resting on the flat roof of the house.

The elderly lady resident said that she had heard something in the night, gone to investigate, seen the tree and thought to herself that there was nothing she could do, and was sure that someone would deal with it in the morning, and gone back to bed. That's what you call a calm reaction.

The storm came a few months after NO5 birth started, as you can see it totaly devastated everything, the new rail tracks had been laid 2 weeks before.




WHEN IN ROME YOUNG MAN.......WHEN IN ROME...........

Most of the contractors equipment was lost to the storm. anything that was'nt nailed down or under storage was lost.



WHEN IN ROME YOUNG MAN.......WHEN IN ROME...........