I watched the programme and found it very interesting. On the night of the storm we were in Alloa, not Glasgow but it was certainly a 'night to remember' there. Our friends from the adjoining upstairs flats sought refuge in our stone built cottage making 6 adults and 2 babies, all huddled round a coal fire, by candlelight as the power lines were down. We were listening to the news on a transistor radio and I made cups of tea and later ham and egg for all on our camping stove. At one point there was the most horrendous noise above which was the TV Arial bouncing down the roof, taking many slates with it. The 3 men found a torch and went out in the gale to inspect the damage and DH moved his van away from the house to an open spot.
In the morning it was eerily calm. There were slates and chimneys everywhere but miraculously no one was hurt and DH's Van escaped unscathed. So off we went to work, unwashed, no sleep, no breakfast. I was only half an hour late because the bus had to take a circular route as most roads were blocked by fallen trees. Spent the day hearing stories of near misses - bosses wife had her head out the window, as she stepped back a flying slate embedded itself into the window frame where her head had been seconds earlier. Bizarrely a garden shed, full of tools had taken to the air at one end of town and landed intact in a field having past over the whole town.
DH, having been reduced to cleaning the workshop because of lack of jobs in the post Christmas lull, came home that evening with enough work, roofs, fences, garage doors, etc. booked to keep him going until the summer. Our friends flats were condemned and ultimately demolished but they were allocated Council houses soon after.
