St Jude storm damage report (with pics) from the New Forest

[wheeledhorseman 579]

Just when I though the workload getting ready for winter was coming to an end and a return to a daily presence on the forum was imminent........ along came St Jude.

 

MONDAY

 

We live a few miles from the land you get to see in posts and at our home in Romsey I slept right through the storm. At daylight a few trees seemed to be looking battered, all plants in big pots had been overturned etc. but no damage, even to the greenhouse.

 

Got a call soon after 8 am from Zenia our neighbor in the New Forest to say that we'd not come off so well there, power out, trees down including one blocking the track, a field shelter upturned but the horses were ok. She was referring to the four legged kind but I'll put your mind at rest, the barn came out unscathed and so none of the red kind were injured either.

 

Arrived to find her husband Will already going at the tree blocking the drive with his chainsaw so joined him with mine. An hour or so later the lane was clear.

 

 

Sorry about the pic quality but I only had my cell with me.

 

Three of the field shelters escaped unscathed but this one, which was only completed days ago, caught the worst of it leaving it thus.

 

 

The fence and trees had saved it from going right over and it had sustained only minor damage. Getting it down carefully would have required a truck with a HIAB crane. As the wind was still blowing it about in its unstable position there was really no option but to pull it down hoping for the best.

 

 

Sure, it sustained further damage but it survived better than I'd thought - still gutting though as we only finished it days earlier. Spent the afternoon with jacks etc and managed to make it sort of ok again but there's still more work to be done. Felt better about the whole thing leaving it looking like this at the end of the first day than it might otherwise have been.

 

 

With its heavy steel skids the whole 24 x 12 shelter weighs a lot but was lifted by the wind (measured on the Isle of Wight not too far away at 93 mph) as if it weighed nothing. As there were gusts of wind throught the rest of the day we left it attached to my son's Landy by strops. The problem is that in a national park a shelter has to be moveable on its skids to avoid planning permission which you might not be granted. I'll need to look at adding some pins into the ground that can be pulled out but looking at how trees were uprooted by the force of the storm I'm not sure it would have made any difference.

 

Day 2

 

Apart from burning  most of the branches from the first tree cut up yesterday some restoration to the electric fence system was top priority today.

 

 

As I said, I'm not certain pins into the ground would have saved the shelter - the roots to trees like this one are mainly still in the ground!

 

 

Just enough foliage taken off to build a temporary electric fence round the tree for now. Underneath it lies a section of a brand new dividing fence we built of the summer to split the field into two grazing areas..... best not to think about the work that went into it too much!

 

I'll start on the tree tomorrow so I'm off first thing to get a new chain for the saw. Been meaning to do this for months as even after sharpening it really doesn't cut well any longer - I think cutting old dead oak was really what finished it off.

 

The biggest task will have to wait for now.....

 

 

No, there's not meant to be a huge bush here - the fence line runs down to the bottom of this field from the gate. There's a holly tree and a couple of willows in this thicket and here's why...

 

 

 

The strange thing is that these trees were protected in terms of being sheltered by the barn and the bit of woodland behind yet somehow were singled out by the storm for felling. The forecasters warned that there would be a sting in the tail to this storm and I think that's what caused most of the destruction.

 

As far as we know the shelter and the trees survived the night and the main storm but were caught by the tail end of the storm. Much more vulnerable trees and four other shelters were left standing but those hit fell in different directions. The power was out from 1 am Monday morning and not restored for just over 24 hours. We saw the helicopter out following the power lines but I guess there were so many down it just took a lot of time.

 

Looking at what's got to be done it seems like it will be a few weeks more till I manage return to daily forum input and some work on the wheel horses. C'est la guerre!

 

I keep telling myself it could have been a lot worse.

 

Andy

[Stormin 9,984]

  Look on the upside. Plenty of firewood for winter.   The problem with the trees, up here anyway, is the very wet ground and they still have. or had, a lot of foliage on.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Stormin

[neil 2,410]

wow Andy you did get hit , i managed to lose only one apple tree out of my orchard & i was gutted with that .

but thank the lord you are safe , which is more that can be said about the poor younge 17 year old girl that lost her life while asleep in her mobile home .

 

wished i lived nearer i would come and give you a had to clear up .

[Anglo Traction 761]

Shame the subject matter for your first Autumn Post was as a result of the weather Andy, Glad to see you back.

I know what you mean about the dead Oak and Chain teeth dulling off.

Look's like your going to be busy for a little longer.

Good to know there were no casualties there.

Regards.

[meadowfield 2,735]

Ouch, saw a trail of destruction in Essex, but we completely missed in Yorkshire.

[Griff 17]

Same here, nothing more than a very stiff breeze, even while those muppets at the weather station were telling us we were having 35KPH! We seem to be in a rather good spot here, nothing nasty weather-wise seems to happen. I always carry my chainsaw in the van anyway 'cos you never know.

[Stigian 1,234]

Eeekk!!   At least the damage was minimal Andy and more importantly no one got hurt.