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St Jude's Storm

bristolvr3

Hello, everyone.

Today (Monday 28th October), much of southern Britain, including East Anglia, was battered by a huge storm. Wind gusts of up to 100mph were reported on the Isle of Wight, the Kent area was seeing 80mph gusts, and unfortunately my home town of Felixstowe, in Suffolk, was hit by strong gusts, probably around 50 to 75mph. A number of back garden fence sections got blown over, some trees were leaning to one side, and some debris was reported on local roads and railways.

As an autistic person, I was rather stressed and worried, but because I have a laptop computer, a mobile phone, the Internet, the email service etc., I was well equipped for anything, and I eventually kept calm. Any advanced warnings of bad weather for my local area (i.e. thunderstorms, hurricane force winds, blizzards etc) would worry me, but my family was there to support me at home. If I was at my workplace, my employer and work colleagues would support me in the event of dangerous weather or ground conditions.

This storm is reminiscent of the Great Storm of 1987. I was aged 6 years old at the time, and had moved to my then-new and nowadays current house for about a year. Despite the fery strong winds, only one roof tile got blown over, although power supplies in the Felixstowe area were disrupted for a time. I don't know if my school life was interrupted back then, as it was 26 years (as of 2013) since the Great Storm, but at least my family was there to support me.

As of this evening, the weather is improving, and I am recovering from what was a very difficult situation. I sincerely hope that everyone on this forum is OK as well. 

Parents

  • bristolvr3 said:

    Thanks for your reply, LiquidSunshine.

    As far as the storms are concerned, the general situation can worry me. Those hurricane force winds can be really noisy and scary, but that's nothing compared to those loud cracks of thunder. Those things are a bit like bomb explosions to me, especially if the storm is so close to my home. There was a time when a big thunderstorm affected my home town of Felixstowe, and a house located about a mile away got struck by lightning. As far as I know, no-one was seriously hurt.

    You're welcome, bristolvr3! Yeah, I would imagine a lot of people, particularly with AS/autism are affected by the menacing sound to the noise of a storm. I hope nobody was hurt during that particular storm.

    In my 1980s childhood, I would rely only on my television and home phone for things like latest news, entertainment etc. Today, my mobile phone, web tablet and laptop computer have rechargeable batteries, so if there was a power cut, I can still find some form of entertainment. If any power cut occurred during the day, there would still be some daylight. But if it happened in the evening or overnight, it would be scary, a bit like a horror film scene.

    I don't know what the mobile phone reception is like in the Calderdale area (some of the most remote areas tend to have virtually no mobile phone signal at all), but if you could get the very best data tariff you could afford, you would be very well equipped for emergency situations like that. Some mobile phone companies do unlimited data plans, although some have 'fair use' data policies, which would restrict you to something like 3 gigabyte per month. Therefore, a wifi connection would be far more suitable for watching videos, if it was working. For general web browsing, 3G data would be fine.

    The reception in Calderdale varies, depending on where you are. Where I am, it isn't good, but it doesn't bother me too much, and in any case, there's no chance our house getting flooded whatsoever; we're right on top of a hill! Thank you for the tips though! It's definitely a good thing getting prepared for various circumstances.

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  • bristolvr3 said:

    Thanks for your reply, LiquidSunshine.

    As far as the storms are concerned, the general situation can worry me. Those hurricane force winds can be really noisy and scary, but that's nothing compared to those loud cracks of thunder. Those things are a bit like bomb explosions to me, especially if the storm is so close to my home. There was a time when a big thunderstorm affected my home town of Felixstowe, and a house located about a mile away got struck by lightning. As far as I know, no-one was seriously hurt.

    You're welcome, bristolvr3! Yeah, I would imagine a lot of people, particularly with AS/autism are affected by the menacing sound to the noise of a storm. I hope nobody was hurt during that particular storm.

    In my 1980s childhood, I would rely only on my television and home phone for things like latest news, entertainment etc. Today, my mobile phone, web tablet and laptop computer have rechargeable batteries, so if there was a power cut, I can still find some form of entertainment. If any power cut occurred during the day, there would still be some daylight. But if it happened in the evening or overnight, it would be scary, a bit like a horror film scene.

    I don't know what the mobile phone reception is like in the Calderdale area (some of the most remote areas tend to have virtually no mobile phone signal at all), but if you could get the very best data tariff you could afford, you would be very well equipped for emergency situations like that. Some mobile phone companies do unlimited data plans, although some have 'fair use' data policies, which would restrict you to something like 3 gigabyte per month. Therefore, a wifi connection would be far more suitable for watching videos, if it was working. For general web browsing, 3G data would be fine.

    The reception in Calderdale varies, depending on where you are. Where I am, it isn't good, but it doesn't bother me too much, and in any case, there's no chance our house getting flooded whatsoever; we're right on top of a hill! Thank you for the tips though! It's definitely a good thing getting prepared for various circumstances.

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