Storm Éowyn has led to calls from the national forecaster to “batten down the hatches”, with fears it will be one of the most extreme storms seen in modern times.
However, you would need to go back more than 60 years for the strongest-ever storm to hit the island.
That title belongs to Hurricane Debbie, which struck in September 1961.
Winds hit a peak of 177km/h (or 110mph as was recorded at the time) and 15 people were killed as a result of the storm, which had been classified as a hurricane before it moved across the Atlantic Ocean.
A Met Éireann report on the storm read: “While true hurricanes are technically not found at latitudes as high as Ireland, Debbie retained many hurricane characteristics when it arrived off the southwest coast.
It continued: “Debbie was unusual in developing into a hurricane so far east in the Atlantic. It reached category 1 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale on [September 6]just off the Cape Verde Islands, where it caused a plane crash and the deaths of 60 people.
“After reaching category 3 status in mid-Atlantic on [September 11]with mean windspeeds of over 100 knots (120mph), it turned northeastwards towards Ireland and lost some of its intensity over the cooler waters of the North Atlantic. Debbie moved on to cause severe gales over Scotland, while the remains of the storm could be traced as far east as Russia towards the end of the month.”
At several locations, all-time wind gusts and 10-minute sustained wind records were broken.
The western coasts were the worst-affected regions, and a 60ft crane collapsed and toppled into Cork Airport.
Five deaths resulted from fallen trees and three others were from building collapses.
Reporting on the storm at the time, the said: “Huge waves whipped up by the ninety miles per hour gales endangered shipping and, inland, disrupted public transport, telephonic communications and public lighting. Two trawlers were lost, one off Bantry and the other in Cahirciveen Harbour.
“The first onslaught of the storm on Friday night which reached force 12 hurricane was described by coastal stations as the worst night for twelve years.”
The worst tragedy of the storm occurred in Co Cavan, where four people died near Ballinagh, when a tree blown down by the gale, crashed on the car in which they were travelling.
The dead were Catherine Keoghan, 60; her 29-year-old daughter, Eileen; her other daughter, Kieran Hyland and Ms Hyland’s infant daughter, whom they were taking home from hospital.
They had driven to Cavan hospital to bring home Ms Hyland and her daughter, born a week prior.
The paper continued: “Others killed in the storm were Hamilton Duffy, 14, from Clady, Co Tyrone, and Susan McDermott, 23, [from] Burnfort, Co Donegal, both killed by falling limbs of trees; Andrew Stanley, 75, 11 Ashfield Ave, Ranelagh, killed in his home when a wall was blown down; Alec Lyon, a patient of Simpson’s Hospital, Dundrum.”
Recurring power failures in electricity supplies in Cork culminated in a half-hour break shortly after midnight, before the fault was rectified.
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