winscape 2226

I was in the south of england (Kent) when it hit us. We lived on the side of hill, with a view of the woods below us. Went to bed, and woke up some hours later feeling cold - the roof had come off the entire terrace. We thought about evacuating to a relative's house, but decided against it when a large oak came crashing down through the house next door (which was thankfully unoccupied).

I heard stories (and saw photos) of things that had happened that night - cars blown *up* onto multi-storey carparks, and household objects such as phones and microwaves being dragged by the wind blowing through a broken window, into a circular flightpath as if some sort of poltergeist was messing about. One man decided to take his entire family out to a B&B in a more northern town, for no good reason that he could put his finger on. When he came home after the storm, his house was cloven in two by a power pylon.

When we got up the following morning, having slept in the cellar, we found there was no longer a wood to speak of nearby - every tree was down.

It wasn't a *bad* storm, as storms go - but the UK isn't prepared for them like the rest of the world are, so it hit us quite badly.

D.