The Great Storm of 15th/16th October 1987

The Great Storm is one of those events that still has reverberations in our family some twenty years on. I don't remember the Michael Fish weather forecast what I do remember is listening to the Shipping Forecast at 00:30 and hearing the warning of severe gales in Portland, Wight and Dover. "Which one are we?" Janis asked, "Wight," I replied, "It doesn't sound good."

We didn't have double glazing back in 1987 and that stormy night we heard every creaking power line, every telephone line swaying in the wind, every fence panel being ripped up - or so it seemed. Janis didn't sleep at all that night, nor the following night as it happened.

When we woke in the morning and looked out of the bedroom window there wasn't much sign of any real damage, the fence panels were all intact - something that wouldn't be the case when the second mini-great storm arrived a few years later - and I left for work at just after 7:30 in much the same mood as any normal day. We didn't have a car for about two years in the late eighties and so I had to catch a bus the ten miles to work. I waited at the bus stop for about three quarters of an hour and then somebody walked past and said the buses were either running late or had been cancelled due to fallen trees. This was the pre-mobile phone era and so I had to walk back home, only about a quarter of a mile, to wait until 8:30 and then let the office know what was happening. I phoned in and there was no reply. I decided to switch on Breakfast TV and find out what was happening. I turned on the TV and there was no picture. I then decided to look in the loft to see if there was a problem with the aerial connection, I don't know or understand to this day why I decided to do that.

As I stood on the step ladders and opened the trap door I was met by something completely unexpected and a sight that I can still see to this day in my minds eye when I open the loft door - clear blue sky. The storm had ripped off the ridge tiles on our roof and dragged the felt and a good section of tiles with it leaving a huge great hole where the roof was supposed to be! Janis had left for work and there wasn't anyway I could contact her before 9 a.m, she was still working in Christchurch then which meant she had walked the mile and a half to her office, unaware that the buses weren't running or of the situation at home.

I found the insurance documents, dialled the helpline and got through straightaway! I explained the situation to the person on the other end of the line and she said that we would be a priority but that due to the excessive number of calls we wouldn't be seen my anyone until the Sunday - it was Friday when the storm hit us. She did say that we wouldn't need to be assessed as all structural damage was being treated as priority and suggested I try and cover any valuables that were in the loft. We didn't keep valuables in the loft, we didn't have Nathalie back then and so anything that didn't have a home went in the spareroom, I was still a couple of years away from owning my first computer back then!

Come Sunday and both Janis and I were exhausted, everytime the wind got up during the two nights we were waiting for the repairs we both got out of bed, opened the trap door and shined the torch into the black void hoping the hole hadn't got bigger. On Sunday around lunchtime there was a knock on the door and two of the biggest blokes I have ever seen stood there with a letter of authentication stating that they were from the insurance company. One of the men went up in the loft made a few of those builders noises, you know the sound that car mechanics like to make as well, sucking through their teeth before delivering the bad news. "It's going to cost about £300," he said, "but because we couldn't get to you straightaway we'll tell the insurance company it was £350, that way you get some money for your troubles."

Insurance fraud! We'd only been in the house since 10th August and here we were being party to a fraud. "Done," I said.

The roof was repaired, we handed over the cash and within three working days we had a cheque from the insurance company. Twenty years on and if the wind is stronger than an Ants fart Janis will lay awake until it has died down, that's the reverberation I mentioned at the start. It's the twentieth anniversary tonight but I don't think I'll tell her, I'm not that cruel!