Great Storm 1987

It's bin wheelie hectic

I was working for Ipswich Borough Council in the Highways Department in Wolsey Street at the time and it all started when the calls began to come in about wheelie bins being blown about in the roads.

We sent out messages on the radios to ask the workmen around the town to pick up any bins that they found in the road. It was quite unusual but as the calls increased along with the winds, we soon realised that we had the start of a storm on our hands.

On this particular day, the supervisors were in a long meeting with the managers and so, in the office, we made the decision to hire in the chainsaws that were usually needed when the winds got up.

We had a few but had an arrangement with some of the hire companies to reserve them in an emergency situation. Little did we know what we were in for at the time!!

Within a couple of hours, after lunchtime, we were already deploying lorries out to cut up trees and pick up large branches with the big grab claws on the back of the lorries.

I was directing the lorries by radio as well as keeping a list of places that needed help. I remember we had a call from a house where the gable end had collapsed as the wind had lifted the roof in Norwich Road.

As the afternoon progressed we had a call from the police, the winds were affecting their radio transmissions. The mast on the police station was not as high as the mast on Civic Centre and as many of our crews were working with the police, we were able to get messages out to the police as well as our own men.

I remember the end of the working day flying past and it was gone 10pm when we had to abandon the clear up for that day and go home.

We all returned the next day but it was the start of the storm that really comes to the forefront for me. Is it really 20 years ago? I can picture it as if it were last week!!

Mel Hodson

Divine intervention?

On the morning of the hurricane my husband needed to get to work early at Ipswich Hospital.

We live close to the town centre, so it's not too far away and he usually travelled there on his moped. This, of course, was not possible that morning.

He was always very dedicated to his job as a theatre orderly, and was determined not to be late, so we ventured out in the car.

Well – what a journey that turned out to be! Tuddenham Road was strewn with enormous trees and debris, and there was absolutely no way of getting past them, so we turned around and went up Woodbridge Road.

As I drove up Woodbridge Road a huge glass sign blew off a building on the opposite side of the road and flew past my windscreen, missing us by about a couple of inches and smashing onto the ground the other side of us.

I have to admit I was rather nervous for the remainder of the journey and was very thankful to have been able to drop my husband at the hospital and arrive back home safely.

I really feel God was protecting us that day. Don't you?

Margaret Smith, Ipswich

PS. You might also be interested to know that at the bottom of Hervey Street (on the corner of Hervey Street and Cemetery Road, a tree had crashed through the roof of a parked car!

Flying through the storm

My husband and I were off on our first holiday abroad, to Tenerife.

As we flew over the Bay of Biscay the flight got very bumpy. The pilot reported that he wasn't expecting it, and that he would have to report the situation back to base.

We thought no more of it until about four days later, when we caught sight of an English couple reading an English newspaper, which had just arrived on the island.

We were really shocked when we read the headlines, then realised what we had flown through it!

We were dreading our return home, not knowing what we might find, but fortunately we had very little damage, unlike some parts of the country.

Keely and Clive Crane, Gt Blakenham

'Woodland walk' survives

In about 1985 Ipswich Round Table helped build the country's first disabled access to a woodland area at Rendlesham.

The storm devastated the surrounding area but the 'woodland walk' as we called it was untouched. Quite a miracle!

Stephen Broughton, Kesgrave

Let them eat cake

I was 17 years of age and managed to sleep through it. My mum woke me to say we had no power and there had been a storm.

At the time I worked in the local Co-Op store in Hadleigh. I remember walking along Benton Street and seeing all the roof tiles that had fallen onto the ground.

The street was no longer grey, it was red as I literally had to walk through all the shattered red tiles that covered the ground.

On getting to the Co-Op, who also had no electricity, we were issued with torches. We were instructed to escort a maximum of two customers at a time around the store by torchlight so they could purchase what they needed.

They didn't want anything stolen and they didn't want to stay shut either as it would be a huge loss in turnover!

We had a large amount of waste due to the fridges and freezers failing, but on the plus side for the staff a lot of our families had gateau that night!

Jane Cole

The wind brought me windsurfing equipment

My experiences of the hurricane started in the early hours of the morning, when I was awoken by the noise of the wind and things being tossed and blown about outside.

At about 7am we looked outside the kitchen window, only to find the sail of a windsurfer hanging on my linen line (it belonged to my neighbours).

My husband told me to close all the inner doors if I was going to open the back door, which I did. On opening the door I found the surfboard resting on my back gate, it had narrowly missed smashing my back door!

I had to duck quickly as a large box was blown over the gate, just missing my head. The back garden was littered with rubbish and debris from bushes etc, and the wind was blowing fiercely.

My husband and I turned on the radio to hear the reports, and the radio announcer was giving updates on the wind speed. These were figures I had only heard on TV reports from other countries!

We both had to work that day, and as the children could not go to school we had to take them to my mother's home.

Whilst walking round there, we passed a fence, and my husband said that we should move over onto the road. As we did the fence blew over.

Electricity was off, so we took flasks of boiling water etc round to my mum's. She was all electric but we had gas too, which meant we could help her out.

I started to walk to work, and at times the wind nearly blew me off my feet. As I walked I heard the glass breaking in greenhouses, sheds blowing down, I saw the devastation of familiar houses and gardens on my route.

Some of the trees that used to line the streets were lying on their sides, roots in the air. Power lines were lying on the paths still live, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw this man walking a dog, which cocked its leg only inches away from the live cables!

When I arrived at work (I was a cook in a residential home for older people), there was no electric and no heating, but luckily we cooked by gas, so I was at least able to prepare hot meals for the residents.

The home had three floors, and as the lift was not working the local fire brigade came and offered to help any of the residents who couldn't make it down the stairs.

Then someone arrived with portable gas heaters and torches for us. We would need the torches later! I had a radio on in the kitchen, and as the day wore on I heard the announcer say that thankfully the winds were dying down.

We were without power for a couple of days at the home, and as some of our residents didn't want to go back upstairs the staff made up some makeshift beds. The residents thought it was great, saying it was like being back in the war when people had to make the best of things!

We were without power at home for a few days, but we managed. In the words of the very old movie, it was a night to remember (and day too!). I don't think we have really trusted a weather forecast since then. Even when they have got all this new technology, people still get it wrong don't they?

Linda

The joy of heavy sleeping

I was on a course in Cheshire at the time, it was a bit of a stormy night on the Thursday (15th) but nothing unusual.

Friday morning I was at breakfast with my colleagues. We were all pleased it was the last day of the course - the hard work was over and we were going home.

One of the men arrived at the table a little late asking us to excuse him as he had to return home immediately. He'd just had a phone call from his wife in Brighton advising him of the weather problems overnight.

He'd been told that the large tree in their garden had been uprooted and was now firmly lodged in their roof.

On returning to my room I put the TV on to hear that the south and east had been "devastated." I immediately phoned home and my husband eventually answered.

I asked him if everything was OK to be told 'YES, WHY'? I explained the situation, he looked out of the window and said, 'it's quite windy with bits of tree about but no problems here'.

He worked in Martlesham at the time. He eventually found a clear route but his journey took 90 minutes instead of the usual 20.

O to be a good sleeper!!

Linda Brown, Bramford

Shopping for the 'older folk'

I remember waking that morning and being told 'you can't go outside at the moment, it's rather windy'.

My housing estate is at the top of a hill and covered with trees and parks. My mother ran a sheltered housing scheme and all the older folk wanted to go shopping as normal.

We had an old cooker barricading the front door. The roof of the cycle shed had blown across the road to land in our garden and most of the tiles from the roof were blowing off in the wind.

Someone saw somebody trying to deliver newspapers down Stone Lodge Lane West, which is an avenue of trees, and had to turn back after it was too hazardous. The shop was phoned and told if someone goes down there they may not come back.

By the time I had to think about going to work (at Tesco) I had a shopping list from the old ladies. I remember feeling it was a good job I was quite robust and stout 'cos I didn't want to be blown into the park that ran alongside.

The council eventually had to use the tiles from the garage to recover the missing tiles from the roof of the old people's home and Tesco moved up to its present location outside Ipswich in November 1987 but the roof leaked for ages, every time it rained!

Ruth Longhurst