THE scary thing about a hurricane is that you are helpless to do anything about it, and all you can do is hunker down in your home and hope that the damage is not life threatening. This is what happened in Glasgow in January, 1968, when winds of 100 mph ripped roofs off Glasgow tenements and sent chimneys and masonry shattering on the ground. Sadly nine people died in Glasgow but it was felt the death toll would have been far higher if it had struck during the day rather than in the middle of the night when sharp-edged slates hit the empty pavements like missiles.
For months the Glasgow skyline was dappled with green tarpaulins covering the holes in tenement roofs as the repairs began on thousands of damaged buildings. This is Gourlay Street, Springburn, where someone's parked car has been flattened by a falling chimney. It is a scene that was repeated throughout the city.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
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