27 years ago today...

[JanieB]

I had had a miscarriage a few days before. At the time of the storm itself I was in the Netherlands on business and knew nothing about it until my plane was stacked over Heathrow. I could see huge trees yards away from the holes they'd been torn out of and there were strange twinkly fields (realised later they were the greenhouses of Kent).

The Facilities Manager of the company I worked for hadn't allowed me a car so I had to catch a bus home. This actually gave me the opportunity to see the devastation on my way home to Wiltshire.

Interesting side to this is said FM only did this to female employees, he tried to do it to the General Manager (female) the following week when her car was in for a service. He'd never met her and didn't know who she was. He never did it again.

And a nice part of the story was that as I got on the bus I asked the driver how I could get from the bus station in Swindon (supposedly the end of his journey) to where I lived seeing as the ticket office would be shut by the time we got there. He said talk to me when we get to Swindon as I turn into a Greyhound bus and will be going through your village. Lovely bloke dropped me off at the local pub where I cadged a lift home from a friend. :-)

[Dorothy rouse]

I'm a bit late reading this thread, but thought I'd add my memories. We were living in Kent,woke to hear walls collapsing, greenhouse glass smashing, tiles crashing down from roofs, and even cars being blown along the road. We had no power, and the darkness made it more scary. Children were about 4 &. 6 years old, schools shut. We cud hear the skates sliding down the roof and our chimneys blew own and luckily for us, loaded themselves somehow, rather than come through roof on to us. And bizarrely the side of the bath 'blew off', scary!