Memories of ‘61 storm
Recently I discovered an old diary dated 1961 and written when I was a live-in teacher in a boarding school.
I opened a random page, September 16 th, the day of Hurricane Debbie and the years peeled away to memories of that great storm.
It was a Saturday and I was the master-on-duty. I was in charge of a household of boys and as it happened was the only adult in the building.
The Headmaster had taken his family away for the weekend and the other resident male staff were also away.
Many oldtimers will remember that day of the big wind which was classified as a category 1 Hurricane, the first to be recorded in Ireland.
Our whole building was shaking, large objects were blowing around the ground and the trees groaned under the force of the wind.
I battened down all hatches and ordered my charges to remain indoors.
As the winds grew even stronger, a sense of excitement gripped the students and the younger ones had to be restrained from rushing out to experience the sensation.
Around 3pm, the first tree fell and ended just short of the science lab.
Soon a shout from upstairs rang out with the news, “there’s another one down!”
Over the next few hours, eleven large trees lay prostrate in the school grounds.
I suddenly remembered the Girls’ Residence on the other end of the campus so I rang to check their situation. The mistress-on-duty reported that a huge tree had come down and smashed an ornamental ballustrade in their garden.
At that, the phone went dead and when I checked, the electricity had failed.
Two prefects told me that the heavy wooden roof of the Headmaster’s garage was about to blow off and would soon be sent crashing into our building. I braved the storm to seek help from the caretaker but he was nowhere to be found.
The garage roof was now flapping dangerously so we decided that it must be cut down. We raided the caretaker’s shed, got a set of steps and an axe and crossed the yard to the garage.
My two prefects held the ladder which I climbed and a pair of senior rugby forwards held my legs ans I chopped at the roof edges.
The roof eventually dropped straight down to the ground and the problem was solved.
At least I thought it was solved till an irate headmaster returned to accuse me of wrecking his garage.
A brief tour of the grounds with him changed me from villain to her and the situation, like the hurricane, ended peacefully.