As I write this by the lights of half-used candles left over from Christmas, and the battery in the
laptop half-full thanks to my husband’s ingenuity with plugging things into cars and taking things out of washing machines, I am thinking my mother must have warned me there would be days like this if I insisted on living on the side of a mountain.
The day began with bad hail from Torc mountain pounding against the window at 6.30am. Mid-morning there was a passionate plea on Radio Kerry from Padraig Corkery, spokesman for Kerry County Council, to “please stay indoors”.
At 12.30pm, I was upstairs when half the copper beach tree opposite the house came down and the wind behind it had such force I stepped back from the window. Frightened. I was alone in the house. The power was out.
Our trees were swaying. All had been topped, luckily. Down the road was a different story. A whole forest had been disturbed and 12 trees were down in a 100-yard section with up to 100 more fallen elsewhere.
My husband came home from Ballyvourney and had to abandon the car because of a blocked road. The forest nearly fell on top of me as I drove halfway to meet him.
The fuse in the car charger for the laptop is gone. But there is one in the washing machine – so with a quick transfer the battery in the computer can be charged up to half full. The candle is not quite burned out.