Storm Darragh

Cloball said:
Is anyone else absolutely shattered I'm away off to bed I don't think I've had a decent sleep in days 😅 our power is going off and on again every 20mins which made for an awkward evening shower and we've given up on the TV.
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I was falling asleep at 6pm but I’m ok now after dinner. One of my horses is shattered - he was asleep on his door after an hour out this afternoon. Don’t think he had laid down last night which is unusual for him so that’s perhaps why. Hopefully we all have a more settled night tonight.
 
santas_spotty_pony said:
I was falling asleep at 6pm but I’m ok now after dinner. One of my horses is shattered - he was asleep on his door after an hour out this afternoon. Don’t think he had laid down last night which is unusual for him so that’s perhaps why. Hopefully we all have a more settled night tonight.
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One of mine was curled up sleeping like a foal at 6pm this evening. Poor things have clearly had a big weekend.
 
Thankfully we made it through the storm which was just horrendous. We’ve now been without power since 8.00 Saturday morning and latest is we will get restored 18.00 tomorrow. Fingers crossed this happens because they have changed dates/times 6 or 7 times so far. It’s grim but at least we have the log burner for heat and the hob is LPG so we can cook and seem to have endless saucepans of water heating for drinks and flasks. Yesterday in the height of the storm we lost a beautiful huge beech tree which thankfully fell into the garden/field rather than across the road so we can deal with it at a later date. It’s damaged a gate and some fencing but that can be repaired. Just want some power and normality again.
 
We checked the cameras just before bed on Saturday night and found the top of one of the trees behind our stable block had snapped off onto the stable roof. Poor horses were a little shook up, we turfed them out into the field for the night. Luckily Sunday morning came and once the tree was cleared off the roof we could see no structural damage thankfully.
It had been so sheltered Saturday daytime, and we were only in the yellow zone 50mph winds so we weren't expecting it really.
 
Although we survived with just the garden fence trashed horses Barns field fences pole barn all fine.Our power went of 9.30 Saturday morning and had only just come back on.Lpg gas fire and oil fired Aga mean we could cook and keep warm.
The red alert alarm frightened the life out of us and the dogs!!!
Just ordering more fence panels and posts to get going with the garden fence
 
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suestowford said:
I think Darragh had a sting in its tail. We had the most damage done here, after the red warning had expired.
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We seemed to get the worst when the red warning was over - the wind changed direction and didn’t seem to let up! Finally got power back last night & got away with only a couple of trees down out and about the farm 🙏 it’s nice to be the other side in calm sunshine today!
 
I was only in an amber warning area but we were without power for 30 hours. Luckily I had all my lights and tech fully charged but my sister didn’t so I took everything including an extra kettle to the yard and filled thermos flasks, hot water bottles and phones so they could stay warm and communicate with the outside world. I also had plenty of gas for my camping cooker so could boil kettles and heat soup at home. Fortunately I was house sitting so had access to many bags of wood for the log fire so the 3 dogs and I were fine and my little blind/deaf cat had many hot water bottles in his basket at home to keep him warm. The NG have under the circumstances done an incredible job getting us reconnected.

I thought that storm Bert was bad for the water damage it caused but to have Darragh so close really does confirm my fears that the world is in an awful mess.
 
Been living in the dark ages since the early hours of last Friday morning, finally got the power back on late last night. Survived the storm, the ponies seemed pretty unconcerned, I'd left the stables open for them but they preferred to tuck themselves under a hedge and wait it out. My main concern was that I was here on my own, no power, no internet or phone or near neighbours and I couldn't go out anywhere to find help in a crisis as it was too dangerous, branches were being ripped off of the trees and eventually huge trees were falling and crashing down onto the lane, one right outside the house. All a bit too dramatic for my liking, even my inner gutsy pioneer woman packed her bags and left. Spent two night sleeping, badly, in my clothes on the sofa and the days reading trashy novels to take my mind off the roaring and crashing going on outside. It's amazing how much we take for granted, switching on the lights, the kettle, using the phone without really thinking about it. I'm going to buy a generator and try and be more prepared for next time.
 
setterlover said:
The great storm of 1987 we were without power from 11 days!!!!!
Got away lightly with no power from early Saturday to Monday morning.
No internet so can't start ordering stuff yet but have repaired what we can but need to order new fencing panels for the garden.
Got a stinking cold to add to it.
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Winner!!!
 
Still no power and last time I checked National Grid site it says Thurs 8 pm. Not raising our hopes as that is so likely to change again. Opened one of the freezers and took out some chicken pieces. They were still frozen in the middle so defrosted and had them for dinner. Our bathroom is absolutely freezing so we are storing milk and leftovers in there as it’s colder than the fridge! Won’t have to open freezers again tomorrow so hoping not everything is wasted. Currently recharging phone and iPad from my cycle battery which is useful. The night time hours are sooo long this time of year. Really had enough of this now ☹️.
 
Bradsmum said:
Still no power and last time I checked National Grid site it says Thurs 8 pm. Not raising our hopes as that is so likely to change again. Opened one of the freezers and took out some chicken pieces. They were still frozen in the middle so defrosted and had them for dinner. Our bathroom is absolutely freezing so we are storing milk and leftovers in there as it’s colder than the fridge! Won’t have to open freezers again tomorrow so hoping not everything is wasted. Currently recharging phone and iPad from my cycle battery which is useful. The night time hours are sooo long this time of year. Really had enough of this now ☹️.
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I am old enough to remember storm of 1987 so know how grim it is to be without power for any length of time. I also remember the blackouts of 1974. Yes, I’m that old!!!
Anyway hope your power is restored soon. Where in the UK are you?
 
myheartinahoofbeat said:
I am old enough to remember storm of 1987 so know how grim it is to be without power for any length of time. I also remember the blackouts of 1974. Yes, I’m that old!!!
Anyway hope your power is restored soon. Where in the UK are you?
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Oh yes! 3 day weeks, candle lit evenings, petrol rationing! In his infinite wisdom our branch manager thought it was a good and generous idea that the firm provided us all with French onion soup. Think about it. Freezing cold outside and just the odd little heater here and there so no way we wanted windows open, a large open plan office with maybe up to 100 people. And vast quantities of French onion soup. Need I say more?
 
Bradsmum said:
Still no power and last time I checked National Grid site it says Thurs 8 pm. Not raising our hopes as that is so likely to change again. Opened one of the freezers and took out some chicken pieces. They were still frozen in the middle so defrosted and had them for dinner. Our bathroom is absolutely freezing so we are storing milk and leftovers in there as it’s colder than the fridge! Won’t have to open freezers again tomorrow so hoping not everything is wasted. Currently recharging phone and iPad from my cycle battery which is useful. The night time hours are sooo long this time of year. Really had enough of this now ☹️.
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Where are you? That’s horrible. I’m sorry.
 
meggymoo said:
Oh yes! 3 day weeks, candle lit evenings, petrol rationing! In his infinite wisdom our branch manager thought it was a good and generous idea that the firm provided us all with French onion soup. Think about it. Freezing cold outside and just the odd little heater here and there so no way we wanted windows open, a large open plan office with maybe up to 100 people. And vast quantities of French onion soup. Need I say more?
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Our company opted for short days rather than 3 day week. I think we worked 9 to 3, only half an hour for lunch and that was brought round to us, scalding hot soup and a hot drink. Another big open plan office with around 100 people and no heating at all. I wore my coat and long boots all day. At home we had a TV that could run off a car battery, a coal stove for heating and a camping gas ring for hot drinks. We were on a different schedule to my parents in town so used to look out for the town lights coming on and we could nip in for fish and chips. It was an interesting time.
 
We were only in the yellow area, but it’s been the worst storm I’ve seen here in the 38 years that we’ve been here.

Had my Irish equine vet out this morning and she also said that she’d never known as bad a storm. We’ve had wind gusts to that speed before, 60mph+, but not over such a sustained length of time, getting on for 24 hours. Trees were toppling from Fri night until late on the Saturday.

She reported that many clients of the practice have had serious damage done to their stabling etc.
 
It feels like we may be getting a 'storm season' now in the UK as a result of climate change - they are definitely more frequent and fierce than they were even 5 years ago. If I remember correctly we had over 10 named storms last Winter, although in our area the windspeed never exceeded the high 50s - 80mph was a different beast altogether. I think I'll be putting together a kit for future events like this to have in an emergency situation. There's so much that we take for granted and this storm has shaken me up.
 
myheartinahoofbeat said:
I am old enough to remember storm of 1987 so know how grim it is to be without power for any length of time. I also remember the blackouts of 1974. Yes, I’m that old!!!
Anyway hope your power is restored soon. Where in the UK are you?
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Parrotperson said:
Where are you? That’s horrible. I’m sorry.
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I’m in Ceredigion near Tregaron. Today we have finally seen the National Grid teams and there are rumours that we could have power tonight 🤞🏻. Apparently this is the worst storm that has hit this area for 60 years 😬. I too remember the ‘87 storm and the blackouts of ‘74 but as a child they didn’t really affect me but no doubt my parents struggled to feed us and keep a fire burning. Anyway hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer.
 
Finally got the EE mobile phone signal back today and WiFi also came back this evening so feel a bit more normal now .Need to replace a lot of the garden panels but can't get a delivery until mid January so will have to patch up what we have for the time being
A land drain near the house seems to have blocked and is overflowing near the house had to dig a wide long trench to take the water down the garden and away from the house.
Can't see what's wrong so we are waiting for our local Mr fix it to come and take a look and sort it out.
I guess we are pretty much set up with cooking( oil fired aga) and heating( lpg gas fire in lounge) We have a very small 2 stroke generator which runs the fridge and freezer and we put it on during the day to keep everything chilled and to re charge the lanterns and torches for the evening but we turn it off over night as it's a bit noisy.
The wind was so scary gusting really hard the conservatory was heaving we really felt in might blow in with the strong gusts.
We shut the dogs into the lounge as we were scared there would be glass everywhere if the conservatory failed and a danger to the dogs
Hope everyone is safe and starting to get back to normal .
 
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