Remembering Kent's Great Storm

Lives were lost, homes were destroyed, and across England 15 million trees came down.  Bartholomew Hall reports.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon to you. Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard that

00:06there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't.

00:15It's been 37 years today since the great storm on the 15th of October, 1987, when hurricane

00:21force winds of up to 120 miles per hour hit the southeast hard, particularly Kent.

00:27It's estimated that 15 million trees from across the country fell, including six of

00:31the seven that Sevenoaks gets its name from.

00:34Well, plenty of buildings were destroyed during the storm as well, just like St Justice Church

00:38here in Rochester. After the storm had passed, it was photographed as only having a few walls

00:43left standing.

00:45Medway councillor Vince Maple was 10 years old at the time of the great storm and lived

00:49in Luton Road, Chatham.

00:51So I remember this quite vividly. I remember waking up the Friday morning. I remember it

00:57was a Friday morning. I was 10. I was in what is now year six. We often now talk about once

01:03in a generation, once in a lifetime weather events, which of course are now happening

01:08every 10 years or more regularly. But back in the 80s, I would say that was a genuine

01:14kind of once in a lifetime situation.

01:18People at the time just weren't prepared for the damage that would follow, and nearly

01:2140 years on, is Kent better prepared than it was?

01:25Well, this week also marks the anniversary of Storm Babbitt and Flood Action Week, launched

01:29by the Environment Agency, to ensure every person is aware of the flood risk in their

01:34area.

01:35The awareness campaign comes after the wettest three-day period for England and Wales since

01:381891, and with more extreme weather on the horizon thanks to climate change, heavy rainfall

01:45has led to flooding this autumn, with 2,000 homes flooded across the country. According

01:50to their findings, Kent has more than 70,000 houses at risk of flooding, the most of any

01:55south-east county.

01:56Yeah, so there's a number of reasons why Kent has so many properties at flood risk. We are

02:00actually a very big county when you compare us to some other counties out there. We are

02:03actually quite highly populated as a county as well. And we have some major rivers, like

02:07the River Medway, the River Darren, and the River Stour. And a lot of those run through

02:11our larger towns and cities. And as you said, we do have a lot of coastline, and a lot of

02:16that coastline is low-lying as well. We are actually quite a flat county, so that does

02:20mean that we do have quite a large number of properties that are at risk of flooding.

02:24Well, with the Environment Agency warning us of the potential for extreme weather events,

02:28hopefully, we as a county and a country are prepared to not let history repeat itself.

02:34Finn McDermid for CAME-TV in Medway.