Hurricanes in 1987

In the 1987 hurricanes, I was at work on a night shift at Thames Chase. I was terrified as I was being chased up the road by 8×4 sheets of metal!!! I escaped this and got a lift home and there was debris all over the road, so I started to clear it up to get to my house. I was walking down Dock road and spotted a large roof coping hanging half way down off a maisonette. I ran to tell the person who was living there and told him to get out of the building in case the coping fell down!! The Fire Brigade turned up (don’t know who called them) and they got it down safely. When I got to my house I noticed that my neighbour had lost all his roof tiles but I haven’t lost any!!When I saw my son he had been travelling to Bata’s for work and was nearly hit by four roof tiles from the Commonwealth House shops! A very frightening experience, did you have a scare in the hurricanes?

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  • My father Dennis Clarke worked on the tug boats for 40years. And he was on the river in tilbury docks that night. Chasing ships that come adrift xxxx

    By Karen clarke (15/11/2015)
  • Hi Larraine, yes I do know Rod worked alongside him quite a lot.

    By andy reynolds (21/10/2013)
  • Yes I remember this night all too well ! October 16th – I was living in Chadwell flats (Gooderham house) at the time, on the sixth floor, I woke at about 4 am to the sounds of a roaring wind, glass breaking and a scene of some disaster movie from the window. The hurricane distroyed the majority of garages around the flats, blew out loads of windows, flattened cars, blew down trees and bought out the “Dunkirk spirit” in so many people in Chadwell. I evacuated my missus and our year old daughter down to her parents in Dickens Avenue, Tilbury where it was a lot safer !

    By Steve Kimmings (20/10/2013)
  • ah yes 1987, we got two weeks off school , torrels windows had all blown in

    By Danny Jackson (06/08/2013)
  • Andy Reynolds, you may know my ex, Rodney Pease from chadwell. He worked for the council and was appointed debris clearing duties too. I remember he was clearing debris onto one of wagons and the cage door was caught by a gust of wind slamming it in his face I and smashing his cheek bone. . . I lived in blackshots flats at the time the high winds kept lifting open my windows it petrified my two young lads, I remember taking the mattress off my bed and covering the window so it didnt blow through and myself and the lads spent the night on the sofa!!. . Next day I went to my mums, she lived in Wellington road maisonettes. I couldn’t believe seeing the roof of the commonwealth house flats lying on the green outside my mums, who incidentally he’d slept through the lot!!.

    By larraine jackson (03/01/2013)
  • yes remember it well, I worked for thurrock council at the time as a highways foreman, my job was to organise my workforce to go to the most needy places, I remember the roof off of Commonwealth house was made of copper sheeting, and supervised its clearing away, it was taken to our Connaught Ave yard and kept in storage, we did’nt get it all, some had been blown all the way to Corringham and beyond , remember cutting up all the trees and taking them to a pit at titan works grays.

    By andy reynolds (10/11/2012)

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