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Great storm of '87
13/10/2017
Thirty years ago today people in the south-east of England woke to find they had been battered by the worst storm in more than 200 years.
With millions off supply, 700 miles of overhead lines brought down and 25,000 faults to deal with, the call for help came to depots across WPD’s area and dozens of engineers from the Midlands, Wales and the South West set off to help.
Hereford Team Manager Mark Sargent was a linesman at the time and was sent to the Crawley depot. “I couldn’t believe the devastation,” he said, “it was as if a giant had walked across, stamping on all the trees.”
Devon Distribution Manager Paul Elsen was also a linesman 30 year ago: he had just returned from honeymoon when he received a call asking if he could go for a few days.
“We went to Basildon in Essex for more than two weeks before going to Aldershot. I was away for about three weeks,” he said.
Teams from Wales and the East Midlands both worked in the Sevenoaks area. Engineering Specialist Aidie Daubney travelled down from Lincolnshire. “There were power lines down everywhere,” he recalled.
“We worked alongside other Distribution Network Operators including teams from Ireland and France. At times the British Army and Gurkhas would be in front of us clearing trees while we followed doing line and pole work.”
Former Team Support at Cwmbran Peter Lloyd described the scenes as ‘chaos’ but added: “Everywhere we went we were made welcome.”
A video showing the restoration efforts in the south-east can be found on YouTube by searching for Seeboard hurricane 87.
With millions off supply, 700 miles of overhead lines brought down and 25,000 faults to deal with, the call for help came to depots across WPD’s area and dozens of engineers from the Midlands, Wales and the South West set off to help.
Hereford Team Manager Mark Sargent was a linesman at the time and was sent to the Crawley depot. “I couldn’t believe the devastation,” he said, “it was as if a giant had walked across, stamping on all the trees.”
Devon Distribution Manager Paul Elsen was also a linesman 30 year ago: he had just returned from honeymoon when he received a call asking if he could go for a few days.
“We went to Basildon in Essex for more than two weeks before going to Aldershot. I was away for about three weeks,” he said.
Teams from Wales and the East Midlands both worked in the Sevenoaks area. Engineering Specialist Aidie Daubney travelled down from Lincolnshire. “There were power lines down everywhere,” he recalled.
“We worked alongside other Distribution Network Operators including teams from Ireland and France. At times the British Army and Gurkhas would be in front of us clearing trees while we followed doing line and pole work.”
Former Team Support at Cwmbran Peter Lloyd described the scenes as ‘chaos’ but added: “Everywhere we went we were made welcome.”
A video showing the restoration efforts in the south-east can be found on YouTube by searching for Seeboard hurricane 87.
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