Flashback — In 1961, Hurricane Debbie Hit Ireland Killing 18 And Wrecking The West

While many will be quick to look to global warming as the reason that Hurricane Ophelia is heading our direction, there's actually precedent here for a storm of this magnitude hitting our shores.

Debbie hit Ireland in 1961 and it's the only tropical cyclone to ever make it to these shores, which forecasters are comparing to the hurricane which is set to arrive in the West tomorrow.

What we know about Debbie...

• Hit the west of Ireland with impact from Kerry to Donegal
• Downed trees and communication lines with power lost for as long as a week
• Up to 25% of trees in western areas were uprooted or destroyed 
• Responsible for 12 deaths in the Republic of Ireland with five caused by falling trees
• Newspapers referred to Galway as looking like a "bombed area"

Weather experts have been drawing parallels between the two storms. Debbie was a Category 1 when it hit land in the West...

#Opheila still a cat 2 headed to Ireland and the UK. Possibly the strongest post-tropical since Hurricane Debbie in 1961. pic.twitter.com/fhYfTxyxHl

— Baron (@BaronWeather) October 14, 2017

The storm did untold damage across our western coast...

Gallery: When hurricane Debbie hit Ireland as a CAT 1 in 1961. #HurricaneOphelia #Ophelia #HurricaneDebbie pic.twitter.com/2Oo5xAg85Y

— Muhammed Kizilkaya (@Muhammediceland) October 15, 2017

If people in Ireland are not taking this storm seriously, then now is probably the time to start doing so...

The last hurricane that transitioned into a post tropical storm to hit Ireland was Hurricane Debbie 1961 #Ophelia #HurricaneOphelia pic.twitter.com/EjLPTjQhXm

— Deric Ó hArtagáinTV (@deric_tv) October 15, 2017

Cat 3 hurricane headed for ....Ireland. Only one other hurricane - Debbie in 1961 - has ever made landfall in the British Isles. #NOTNORMAL https://t.co/7mMY9XifFJ

— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) October 15, 2017

We can only hope that the storm is in no way as serious as Debbie was a half century ago, but it would be wise to take extreme caution and plan for the very worst case scenario.

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