Valentia relatively unscathed by Ophelia
THANKFULLY, the storm associated with Ex-Hurricane Ophelia which hit Ireland on Monday, October 16, inflicted very little damage in the Iveragh area with Valentia Island escaping particularly well in that the electricity supply did not fail and no fallen trees or damaged buildings were observed. Unfortunately, such was not the case in other areas of the south and many parts of the country with much devastation and very sadly a few fatalities occurring.
Valentia endured high winds in the early and late morning until about noon when a significant change occurred with the sun peeping out to be followed by a welcome calmness. This occurred as a result of the eye of the storm being over Valentia and surrounding areas. The eye occurs at the centre of the circling wind with skies often clear above it and winds relatively light.It is the calmest section of any hurricane.The eye is so calm because the now strong surface winds that converge towards the centre never reach it. With the movement of the eye away from Iveragh skies the afternoon winds again increased but to no devastating effect .
It was a surreal experience ,during the calmness of the eye, to walk through the village of Knightstown.All boats had been shifted from the Marina and not a parked or moving vehicle was to be observed in the vicinity of the Town Clock Not a person was to be seen on the streets It was eerie and akin to a bomb scare shutdown. After the storm comes the calm and the following day illustrated this to perfection. It was a day of sunshine, hardly a cloud in the sky and not a puff of wind, with the adjacent waters surrounding Valentia a sea of glass. The schools were still closed for that Tuesday and such was the weather that some people took to walking or cycling and some even mowed their lawns.
It must be said that the gales of January and February of about four years ago inflicted far more damage in Valentia and the outlying Iveragh area. The Christmas Eve gale of 1997 was particularly ferocious and inflicted huge damage. Some of the older generation of Valentia Islanders will tell you that for them the St.Stephen’s Day gale of 1951 was the worst in their memory. They explain that the Cattle Boat was swept from the back of the watch house to be found high and dry on the bar,situated on the direction up the river to Cahirsiveen. The late Charlie O’Connell of Cracow owned a motor boat named The Swan (purchased from the late Ring Lyne publican John William O’Sullivan). This vessel and it’s nets were swept to sea from near the Town Clock and it certainly was its swan song as it was never seen again. The loss of The Swan was a major financial blow to Charlie. The 1951 gale also took the roof off the Valentia Coastguard Radio Station and Ellie Dineen had to abandon her house on the road down to the Lighthouse as it was reduced to a ruin, the remnants of which are still there today. She subsequently moved to the Slateyard.
A seafaring Knightstown man, whose opinion would be highly respected, states that the storm of 1961 was even worse than ‘51, but did not last as long.