Storm Katie

Last night at midnight I was cowering in my bed in our converted garage, listening to the raging of Storm Katie. We've had quite a few storms big enough to be named this winter, but I'd never heard anything like this. It was really scary. The gusts were coming thick and fast and I could hear the trees outside groaning, the back gate creaking and even a snap, crackle and pop from my built in cupboards on the outside wall. I dread to think what it must have been like for anyone out on the sea. The newsreader on TV this morning said there were gusts of 106 mph at The Needles on the Isle of Wight, which isn't that far from here.

I did get off to sleep eventually, waking in the early hours again to realise that all was calm and the storm had passed. This morning we have bright sunshine and all looks well in our street, though other areas were not so lucky. Brighton had huge trees uprooted and there were pics on the news of them blocking roads. My daughter took the dogs to our local country park and said there was at least one tree down where they had to find a way around it. You can see some of the pics of damage here.