DEBORAH CROMBIE: Have you all been following the big storm, Eunice, in the UK? For all the moaning I've done the last two years about wishing I was on a plane to England, Friday was the one day I'm glad I was NOT landing at Heathrow!
I did, however, get to experience that hairy Heathrow landing second hand.
A guy in the UK named Jerry Dyer films the jets at Heathrow and uploads the footage to his YouTube Channel, BIG JET TV, and on Friday his channel went viral!
I should probably have put in a disclaimer with this link: Do not watch if you're afraid of flying.
This is crazy stuff! I'm really glad that all those planes got down safely.
Eunice blew down people's fences and sheds and took off roofs, including half the dome of the O2 Arena.
All of this brought to mind very vividly a trip I made to England in October of 1996. I had rented a car and was driving with a friend from Exeter in Devon to Bedford in Bedfordshire, intending to stay with my friend Kate Charles and her husband there. Not a bad drive, on a nice day.
But the storm closed in before we had left Devon. I have driven on ice in Texas (where were are never prepared.) I've driven in torrential thunderstorms and on the fringes of tornadoes, but I have never before or since driven in anything as bad as that storm. It was Hurricane Lili, and it caused 300 million dollars in damage.
Here I was, driving on the wrong (um, opposite!) side of the road, unfamiliar car (thank goodness I was accustomed to standard transmission), unfamiliar motorways, sky black as night, hurricane force winds, and rain so heavy it was almost solid. I couldn't see to exit the motorway, I could barely maintain a lane. We had no communication other that the car radio--no easy-access cell phones in those days. This went on for hours, and every minute I thought might be our last.
When we did finally reach Bedford, I was gibbering. It was all I could do to stagger from the car and collapse.
Why I didn't know I was driving into a hurricane that day, I have no idea now! Surely it can't have been the fault of the BBC meteorologists. But I promise you that I've been much more careful about weather warnings since, and I hope I never, ever get into a situation like that again.
How about you, REDs and readers? What was your scariest weather-related driving experience?
