10 Years ago today

Milktrolley · 25-12-2007 1:11am #1

Hard to believe, but it has been ten years since the mad storms of Christmas Eve 1997. For me anyway it was one of the defining Christmas memories, sitting in the dark talking to Santa on CKRfm while my brother held a Talkboy up to a battery operated radio. We were one of the lucky ones, our power had returned by around 9:30 that night. What are your memories of it??

Dub13 · 25-12-2007 1:22am

I cant remember any storm....and I am 28 so would have bee 18 at the time,maybe I was drunk.

skelliser · 25-12-2007 1:24am

funny that!......i dont remember any storm either!

Dub13 · 25-12-2007 1:28am

skelliser wrote: »

funny that!......i dont remember any storm either!

Maybe it was just in Carlow..?

Milktrolley · 25-12-2007 1:28am

Just in case you're thinking I've gone crazy...

http://www.clubi.ie/mm/UnfIRXmasE.htm

Irish Examiner; Dec. 29, 1997:
"HURRICANE Noelle" has brought double trouble for ESB network electrician Michael Keating whose own home has been wrecked by the high winds while he was out trying to help thousands of customers. Last night, approximately 1,250 homes were still without power.
...
""It's been absolute mayhem. The fellas are wrecked. It's been non-stop since around 1pm on Christmas Eve. Nobody has had a Christmas dinner and nobody has had a full night's sleep. We start at around 7am and most of us don't finish up until 11pm... Never did I think we'd be thrown in this deep."

Senna · 25-12-2007 1:36am

yeah remember that, but i didn't think it was xmas day. The storm was just getting bad and i decided to move my car from the front of the house to the side, just in case any tiles fell off the roof. about 20 minutes later i looked out the window and there was a 30ft tree where my car had been parked, just fallen and didn't make a noise.
that'll always be my memory of it.

AlmightyCushion · 25-12-2007 1:39am

Milktrolley wrote: »

Just in case you're thinking I've gone crazy...
http://www.clubi.ie/mm/UnfIRXmasE.htm

Irish Examiner; Dec. 29, 1997:
"HURRICANE Noelle" has brought double trouble for ESB network electrician Michael Keating whose own home has been wrecked by the high winds while he was out trying to help thousands of customers. Last night, approximately 1,250 homes were still without power.
...
""It's been absolute mayhem. The fellas are wrecked. It's been non-stop since around 1pm on Christmas Eve. Nobody has had a Christmas dinner and nobody has had a full night's sleep. We start at around 7am and most of us don't finish up until 11pm... Never did I think we'd be thrown in this deep."

For a minute there, I thought milk trolley was off his trolley.

Jack Sheehan · 25-12-2007 1:41am

Ah yes I remember this but only because everyone in my school was a complete fool about things like this.

They sincerely thought that there was going to be a serious hurricane, as in cars flying through the air.

Dudess · 25-12-2007 1:44am

It was Christmas Eve. I was working in the Virgin Megastore in Cork. The power went a couple of times. Apparently slates were falling off roofs, traffic lights were spontaneously smashing, and the glass ceiling in Brown Thomas Patrick Street collapsed. I missed it all because it was so busy in the shop I didn't get a look outside. At home our chimney fell off and our TV aerial came with it. My gran's electricity went for days. Fun times.

Wertz · 25-12-2007 1:46am

Remember it well. I was just back from working in Galway, came home on xmas eve, was out on the lash with a mate and we were headed back to his house. Stopped to make a spliff in a secluded spot not realising just how windy it was....eventually got it made and got back to his house to be greeted by no feckin' electricity. Fortunately there was still drinking to do and we hunted up some candles.
Belfast got an awful doing that night as did most of the North. Can't believe that's 10 yrs back...

Owen · 25-12-2007 1:48am

Being in the newly opened Galway Bay Hotel, which didn't have any backup generators installed yet, so people got stuck in their hotel rooms when the electronic locks packed up, there was no entertainment, food was delayed, etc. One elderly woman had a minor heart attack due to the stress of being locked in the lift, and was carted away in an Ambulance.

Pj! · 25-12-2007 2:06am

That day all the water in our area stopped working. We have an old fashioned pump in the town and everyone was at it christmas day with whatever containers they could find bringing water home.
It was great! Everyone had a great laugh at it and everyone who went to it spent ages at it chatting to the different families who were arriving all the time.

Happy times

Mr. CooL ICE · 25-12-2007 2:25am

My power was grand. If i remember properly, that was the first year we had a PC in the house, so I got a saitek joystick for xmas, aswell as copies of quake and doom2

25-12-2007 2:26am

My pencil skirt blew up, in front of my grumpy boss who I always blushed around anyway....and couldn't be put down.
The shame of it.

L1011 · 25-12-2007 2:32am

I'm more surprised anyone listened to CKR, to be honest...

homah_7ft · 25-12-2007 2:36am

I remember listening to Fanning's Fab 50 count down on a battery-powered radio in the dark.

l3LoWnA · 25-12-2007 2:44am

I can't remember those storms in '97 but in '98 on St. Stephens day I clearly remember being in the pub with just candle-light as there was massively bad weather outside, power cuts all over the place and high winds as far as I remember. It was a great night. I was there with my first love.....so romantic

Each loo had a little tea light on the back of it for us to snort our coke beside (j/k - no cocaine, just friends and a few drinks - was nice.....) Oh memories....

[edit - just looked it up - it seems the storm of Christmas Eve 1997 affected mainly sounthern counties and the storm in 1998 on St. Stephens Day was much worse but was mainly in the Weshhhht

The Christmas Eve storm of 1997 generated 47,500 insurance claims totalling £45M while
the St Stephen’s Day storm of 1998 is estimated to have cost the industry in excess of £100M
(Irish Insurance Federation, 1999).
Irish Geography,

]

J.S. Pill · 25-12-2007 2:57am

We hadn't any power in wexford for Christmas day - certainly one of the more memorable Christmases

rossie1977 · 25-12-2007 3:58am

i don't remember the storms of 1997 but i sure as hell remember the huge storm of Stephens Day 1998 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_Storm

the place was a mess and we ended up having no electricity for about 5-6 days after, and then came the big freeze on Stephens day 1999 :eek: -12C

Senna · 25-12-2007 4:05am

being from Donegal, my memory is from the 1998 one. It was made worse cause nobody in our house watched any news over xmas, so didn't know it was coming.

If it happened today, they'd blame Global Warming and make us pay a Hurricane tax

billy the squid · 25-12-2007 4:07am

The 1998 stephens day storm was nothing compared to the Christmas eve storm of 1997. 1997 was really nasty. remember it well.

rossie1977 · 25-12-2007 4:26am

billy the squid wrote: »

The 1998 stephens day storm was nothing compared to the Christmas eve storm of 1997. 1997 was really nasty. remember it well.

yeah nothing, 120 mph winds, the front part of the roof blew off our house, pieces of sheds the size of trucks were flying across the road near where we live

yeah nothing just another day :eek:

Senna · 25-12-2007 4:48am

billy the squid wrote: »

The 1998 stephens day storm was nothing compared to the Christmas eve storm of 1997. 1997 was really nasty. remember it well.

Considering both storms hit different parts of the country, of course you were only affected by one of them:rolleyes:

rahenyguy · 25-12-2007 5:35am

dub 13 i live in killbarrack and i dont rememvber it either and i was 17 when it happened so my guess is we were lucky

kelle · 25-12-2007 10:50am

I remember it so well. My hubby and I had moved into our new shack house the day before. I was working that night, my husband told me he was going to the local pub for a couple of hours. There were a lot of accidents in A&E that night from trees falling on cars, and I got so worried about him but I couldn't contact him as we hadn't got a phone installed yet and there were no mobiles. However, I knew if he was in an accident he'd arrive at my workplace!
As it happens, he didn't go out that night and he went to bed early because the electricity was out. But we had our electricity back by the time I got home at 9am.

Terry · 25-12-2007 11:14am

I don't remember a thing.

I remember the ones in 85 and 86, but not the ones in 97 and 98.

kelle · 25-12-2007 12:42pm

Terry wrote: »

I don't remember a thing.

I remember the ones in 85 and 86, but not the ones in 97 and 98.

So, enlighten us Terry - what happened to you in 85 and 86?

gurramok · 25-12-2007 1:02pm

Massive thunder & lightening storms in 85 and 86 which haven't happened since, just so happens they occurred on the near exact dates that each year if my memory is correct!

Crumble Froo · 25-12-2007 1:11pm

we'd just gotten a big expensive GAA clubhouse built, i dont think it'd even been officially opened, and the storm ended up knocking loads of the tiles off the roof. there was a pretty good community effort at putting them all back up, which i found really impressive, particularly given the timing.

Fast_Mover · 25-12-2007 1:25pm

Ouh I remember that year..went down to my uncles for dinner as they had a gas oven. There was about 20 of us for dinner..luckily his daughters husband is a chef and used to having crowds,lol.

The Queen · 25-12-2007 1:45pm

I was nine years old. Me and my brother spent a while shooting down Christmas cards with a toy gun that shoots plastic darts. Was so much fun.... Then remember my mam trying to boil water over the fire. Good times!

Weird twas so long ago.... I remember it really well!

10 Years ago today

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