wow. I can still remember being woken up by my Dad telling me school was closed. I never heard any of it and the only thing different was the fact my window was covered in muck. A friends dad who worked as a fireman rung to say it was too dangerous to go out with falling tiles and trees. We were quite lucky as it goes - we lost too plastic plant holders outside that, strangely, had left the actual soil and plants unharmed where they had once stood. We never found the pots.
Our school fared worst, as our gym roof had fallen in.
We lived 5 miles inland from the sea, and the day before had sat in the car eating fish and chips by the front, i can always remember how odd the clouds looked, like straight lines heading towards us. It was this event that piqued my love of clouds and storms.