Late last month, most of southern Britain faced high winds and torrential rain in the so-called Storm of St Jude. Although many media outlets highlighted the 99mph winds on the exposed coasts of the Isle of Wight, the tragic death of 4 people and the 132 flood warnings put in place, they failed to mention the local chaos that ensued as a result of the storm.

Across London, many train services were cancelled until at least 10am, or until the lines were declared safe and free from fallen trees or debris. One rush-hour commuter, Trisha, said, “Well, firstly I found out (on the Sunday) that no trains were running in order for me to get to work on the Monday till 9am, however this time later changed throughout the day and eventually no trains ran at all.” She went on to say that many of her colleagues had opted for other forms of public transport, but still arrived at work severely late on account of the additional rush-hour traffic. Furthermore, she stated that instead of her usual 30-minute train from Streatham Hill to Sutton, she had to use "a bus, a tube and eventually a cab”. Furthermore, she added, “I was very annoyed and angry that National Rail was not providing any information with regards to why the lines were not running yet.”

Furthermore, several local car owners were in for a shock when trees were uprooted across south-west London. On Amesbury Avenue, SW2, a silver Toyota was crushed by a fallen tree at the peak of the storm’s power. Garrad’s Road, SW16, was also left partially inaccessible, on account of a fallen tree blocking the both sides of the road, close to Broomwood Hall Preparatory School. One local school, St Bede’s Roman Catholic Primary also suffered substantial damage to their front wall, as a large tree fell from inside the school grounds, partially blocking the pavement. However, while this tree fell on Monday 28th October, the tree was only removed by the council four days later, on the morning of Friday 1st November.

Such local damage, although appearing trivial to many, caused much disruption across Lambeth, with further obstructions reported across Dulwich, Mitcham and Clapham. This prompted Chuka Umunna, MP for Streatham, to begin tweeting throughout the morning, warning people to avoid certain roads, on account of media outlets not reporting the road blocks to major roads throughout SW16. With such violent damage to many trees, cars and parts of buildings, one can only think it a miracle that few people, if any, were injured across Lambeth, and that the storm quickly passed.