THE hurricanes in the Caribbean that caused so much havoc and death to the islands and to Florida reminded me of the hurricane that struck Argyll and the Central Belt on the night of January 15, 1968.
The hurricane, which also included a series of tornados, caused the deaths of 21 people, destroyed 300 houses and damaged a further 7,000. At its height, gusts of more than 100 miles per hour were recorded at Glasgow Airport. It felled 19,770 acres of forest across Scotland but particularly in Argyll.
Strangely, this hurricane, for that’s what it was, was hardly reported in the English national press. Perhaps Scotland wasn’t considered very important to it in those days.
Richard McLellan,
4 Stag Park,
Lochgilphead,
Argyll.
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