Great Storm 1987

The millions of trees that fell in the early hours of 16th October 1987 did more than block roads and alter landscapes.

Tumbling branches and air-born debris brought down countless electricity and telephone cables, while freshly-exposed tree roots unearthed many more.

The result: nearly one and a half million people in the south east without power. Out came the candles, fire-places roared back into life to heat water and cook food, and a community spirit - not seen in decades - emerged from the eerie calm after the storm.

Hall: "damage equivalent to 15 years of faults"

"The rural network that had taken some 50 years to develop had been destroyed overnight," says Nigel Hall, now head of customer connections for EDF Energy but in 1987 was engineering foreman for Seeboard.

"What we saw that night night was a level of damage equivalent to 15 years worth of faults and breakdowns in a few hours - it was absolute devastation."

Debilitated

Nigel was just one of 4,500 staff deployed by the power company to apply first aid to the debilitated power network. A further 3,000 linesmen, tree cutters and engineers were brought in from elsewhere in the UK and Ireland to help - alongside members of the armed forces, police, ambulance and fire service.

But, on such an extraordinary night, trees weren't the only cause of power failure: "barns had been flown into our overhead lines, vehicles, even parts of buildings," continues Nigel.

"In terms of the damage caused and disruption to customers, this was unprecedented until that moment in time - and since."

Within 24 hours, emergency repairs had restored power to one million homes but it would take another two weeks to re-connect some of the more remote communities.

Nigel remembers driving down country lanes, following a tree-cutting team, to take an electricity generator to a man with a kidney dialysis machine.

"The landscape had changed over night - we were going to places we were all familiar with and they somehow looked different. The skyline had changed and the points of reference were no longer there.

"There was a real Dunkirk spirit and everyone was out to help each other for the greater good," he says.

Indeed, the Great Storm did teach many different organisations a lesson in inter-dependency. Today, energy companies can even rely on pan-European support in the event of major destruction and local emergency planners are still working with models drawn up in the autumn of 1987.

Your memories of the black-out

John Sachs, Maidstone
As I looked out so I saw what seemed like a firework display, there were red sparks and green flashes as the nearby electricity sub-station blew up. All of the lights went out locally. As we lived near Orpington Hospital, I went to the front of the house to see if the generator had kicked in there - it had.

Margery Mary Hawkins
I lived in a flat in a nurses' hostel This night, I saw big trees bending and decided we had a hurricane. The electricity went off. I lit candles. People in my corridor were awake, I shared out candles (warning about fire risk) and invited people to use my gas stove and kettle (they all share one electric cooker, which, of course was off. In the nursing home itself, night staff saw plate-glass windows bending like yacht sails.

Harry
In the screaming wind and bits of roofs and trees falling all around us, I rawl-plugged some anchors into the wall and safely lashed the garage door down with string. The night sky was now lit by flashes from the nearby electricity pylons and the noise of the storm was deafening. A neighbour's double glazed lounge window was smashed on the outside pane and he spent the rest of the night pressing the remaining inside pane to contain it's flexing. He won. Caravans at a local site were badly affected, some of them were thrown upside down.

E. Watson, Orpington
When it did get light the scene outside was just amazing. Garden furniture in ruins, trees splintered and split in half - lying in the garden, roofs half gone and fences down. I think we had somebody else's fence in out back garden. We had no electricity for a couple of weeks afterwards and I remember having to go to the village pub to eat most nights as they had a generator. The whole village used to be down there which was really fun and great for community spirit. We then went home and played board games by candle light! For a child of the 80's used to television and walkmans, I'll remember the aftermath very vividly, strangely enough as a unique and special time!

Sue, Welling
I was in a flat off Widmore Road in Bromley, Kent when the storm hit that night. I was alone and the electricity and phones went off. I only had a battery radio to listen to. I was very scared and kept saying that out loud to myself! I could hear the wind so loud outside. In the early hours of the morning, as I lay with the duvet over my head, I heard a slow loud creaking sound and the old oak tree right outside just missed the window of the front room.

Sue, Kent
Living in small village we had no electricity for a week and no telephone for ten days. No mobiles then to fall back on!! No electricity meant no heating and nothing to cook on. We luckily had an open fire so kettles and stews were cooked on an open fire. A neighbour with a solid fuel aga also cooked us some casseroles. No hot water for a week so clothe and personal washing was difficult . Some friends living in Maidstone invited us to dinner at the week end and instead of taking the usual bottle of wine we asked if we could take our sponges bags to have a bath!! Prior to the storm our electricity supply (overhead ) was often cut off by falling trees. After the storm because so many dead and dying trees were brought down by the storm our electricity supply once restored improved 100 fold, so some good came out it for us.

David Saffery, Cliftonville
On arrival at work we had no power and were eventually sent home, the journey taking another hour plus. However the main thing that I will always remember is the number of Land Rovers based at Broadstairs Seeboard depot from just about every electricity board in the UK.