The Pullen girls and their mother, Deborah, as they appeared in the Sutton Guardian after their miraculous escape in 1987
Twenty years ago, even the luckiest of Epsom and Sutton residents were waking up to scenes of devastation and destruction.
Others were recovering from one of the most traumatic nights of their lives.
The Great Storm of 1987 went down in history as the worst storm since 1703. Even now, two decades later, parks and open spaces are still trying to recover from the disaster.
The storm claimed 18 lives and caused damage estimated at more than £1billion. The south of the country was the worst affected as the merciless winds swept through the home counties.
But the death toll could have been much higher if the worst of the storm had struck during rush-hour, instead of during the night of October 15.
In Sutton one of the luckiest familes was the Pullens, when three little girls cheated death at their Carshalton home - not once, but twice.
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Frightened by the sound of the wind, six-year-old Carla climbed out of the top bunk to join her sister Louise, seven, in the bottom bunk. Seconds later the ceiling fell in.
The two dragged their two-and-a -half year old sister Kerry from her cot and went into their mother's bedroom, just as a huge chestnut tree crashed through the roof into their bedroom, followed by the chimney stack.
Felled swoop: Trees were one of the most visible victims of the Great Storm. Among those lost in Sutton and Epsom was one thought to have been planted by Henry VIII and the cedar which gave Cedar Houses their name
Mother Deborah Pullen said at the time: "It was a miracle they weren't killed. Their bedroom is completely wrecked."
Her husband Mark hired a crane to lift the remains of the tree off their house to prevent further damage.
There were tales of near-misses and lucky escapes all over the region, as people surveyed the aftermath.
Ordinary life was put on hold, with roads and railway lines blocked by fallen trees, and worst of all, the power lines were down.
The South East Electricity Board (Seeboard) reckoned that at the height of the storm 90 per cent of customers - about 1.6million people - were without power.
Engineers worked round the clock, and by Monday they had reduced the number to 100,000.
But the storm had wreaked havoc with the power lines.
Seeboard used 10 helicopters to help them with their repair work, and recruited army and RAF personnel along with engineers from other parts of the country to assist.
People living near Ashtead Common were without power for most of the week because falling trees in the middle of the common had brought down the power lines and repairs were complicated and time consuming.
Candles fetched premium prices and camping stoves were in high demand as ordinary electric appliances were rendered useless by the force of nature.
"We woke up to find our neighbour's fence in our front garden and several trees in the garden had fallen down," said Margaret Bidhams from Broadhurst, Ashtead.
"We relied on candles and some paraffin lamps for light and a primus stove for cooking .
"It certainly made us appreciate our power supply when it eventually came back on."
One of the worst affected places was Oaks Park in Carshalton. The park will never be the same again after that night of chaos and destruction.
The trees were still in leaf and the ground was saturated with heavy rain when the winds struck, and as a result 15,000 out of 22, 000 trees in the park were felled by the force of the storm.
In Epsom, the historic Cedars building lost the reason for its name when the huge cedar tree in front of the building was destroyed in the storm.
An ancient tree near the Hogsmill in Ewell, believed to have been planted by King Henry VIII, also blew down.
Epsom fire officer Stephen Dade summed up the sense of disbelief shared by people across the country.
"It's like a bomb has hit the area," He said. "If you drive down the Reigate Road it's like a giant hand has gone down it, knocking trees down."
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