Quote Originally Posted by TipperaryBaggie View Post
In 1987 I was living in the New Forest and it was scary watching trees falling in front of you when driving.
Yeah that one has lived long in the memory...amazing scenes the following morning when the eye moved right over us. Everything just went eerily quite with devastation all around and then after a few hours it began again. I always remember having to go up to the roof to asses the damage. The roof which had all Welsh slate was a disaster but looking out over Sandown town, there was hardly a roof untouched. The main high street couldn't be traversed as there was about six inches deep slates everywhere. Quite a few people died that day. We had no choice but to close the hotel five weeks before the season end. As had many others...