Storm Ophelia - General Discussion/Local reports - See MOD NOTE Post #1

fryup

in terms of impact & damage - personally speaking i put it on par with storm Darwin, no better no worse

the only difference is Ophelia took longer to pass whereas Darwin was gone within 2-3 hours.....i'm in east-clare

Pintman Paddy Losty

....... wrote: »

3 people dead.
300,000 people without power - some facing this for up to 10 days.
Hundreds of trees down and roads blocked countrywide.
Costs to repair the damage estimated on the radio this morning to be in the 10s of millions.

But you carry on with the willfully ignorant wind up posts.

Most if not all major roads already clear.

The stats for people were being downgraded by the hour as ESB as they fixed faults last nightg and this morning.

Genuinely RIP to the 3 dead. But the amount of accidental/road deaths was probably less yesterday than a normal day as everyone was indoors and off the roads.

FrancieBrady

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Go ahead. Launch vitriol at me and call me a troll for staying the obvious. This was NOT the most destructive storm in half a century. Not even close. Not even in the last decade.

That's all I'm saying. But yeah. Call me a troll for not sticking with the cosy consensus.

I didn't see too many saying it was 'the most destructive storm in half a century'

I did see a lot of knowledgeable people adultly saying that it was POTENTIALLY the most destructive storm in half a century'. Which was important advice to those responsible enough to take precautions and who had decisions to make about safety.

And to some/many it was the most destructive storm in half a century. To 3 people and their families it was the ULTIMATE destructive storm, sadly.

Hooks Golf Handicap

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

The level of vitriol here if you suggest the storm was anything other than catastrophic is phenomenal.

The weather enthusiastists here over hyped it and in order to save face are now trying to claim it was the most destructive storm to hit in more than half a century, which of course is ludicrous.

I'm very glad it turned out to be a damp squib and I don't hold it against Met eireann for erring on the side of caution but thankfully it was a very minor storm for the vast majority of the country.

And before anyone asks... yes I am aware that three people lost their lives.

A great brave call Pintman but I fear it will be lost here or even censored.
I mentioned earlier that Met E were wrong to extend the red warning beyond Waterford/Wexford & also got ridiculed.

Perhaps the relevant disaster committee which I believe are reconvening for a debrief this week listen to both sides of the debate.
I'd hate to see the power of a red warning being undermined by what was nothing more than an unremarkable windy day to many.

sReq | uTeK

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Most if not all major roads already clear.

The stats for people were being downgraded by the hour as ESB as they fixed faults last nightg and this morning.

Genuinely RIP to the 3 dead. But the amount of accidental/road deaths was probably less yesterday than a normal day as everyone was indoors and off the roads.

Christ your logic. Deaths didn't reach the typical road user death toll = Storm not bad.

You did see the link I posted? Do you think that 100 year old trees with roots going down into concrete blow over with nominal gusts.

The storm, was horrific in some parts of the country, just because you didn't witness it 1st hand doesn't mean it wasn't.

However, I'll stop posting facts, when you have evidence in front of you and you choose to ignore it the intelligent person will just stop trying.

knipex

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

I think you're looking through rose tinted glasses. It didn't hit Dublin as hard as I was told, which delighted me. I don't fancy losing power and having to clear debris from my house.

However, how can you argue with the level of destruction that is clearly evident throughout the rest of the country, specifically in Kerry and Cork.

You only need to look at Cork's Centre Park Road to understand how violent this wind was.

http://www.eveningecho.ie/corknews/Corks-Centre-Park-Road-devastated-by-17-fallen-trees-666f5cba-2e27-4fc4-b5ea-64ddde53f029-ds

300,000 people without power, 20,000 people without water.

Yes...just a drizzle.

To be fair.

Where did he say it was just a drizzle ?

Some areas got hit hard yes but any claim that it was the worst storm in 50 years is nonsense.

Desmond did far more damage, nationwide and even regionally..

UI have no doubt that specific areas where hit worse than with Desmond, but as a national event... Desmond was worse.

Personally I couldn't be happier that the impact was far less than predicted and this met Eireann played it perfectly in the buildup.

However the hype post the storm is damaging credibility..

HeidiHeidi

Macy0161 wrote: »

Well RTE asked Naughton this morning could more have been done to prevent the ESB outages. Not sure what she was wanting to have been done - take out all the trees that may take out a wire? Sure take out a few more just in case they lose a branch that causes flying debris?

Only heard the second half of Morning Ireland, but RTE were asking an awful lot of stupid questions along these lines of their interviewees. I had to admire their patience in answering politely and rationally, I'd have been all "oh FFS, are you actually serious???"

harr

I don’t see the point in people posting about how it wasn’t a bad storm just because they did not experience it bad.
In this country if it doesn’t happen in Dublin it simply did not happen...
I am in kildare and by no means got the worst of it but the gusts yesterday Lunch time were frightening and our town was cut off with falling trees for a time.
I witnessed a line of small tress behind my house being flattened not broken or snapped just blown flat.
Emergency services are flat out clearing roads which is proving difficult because of live wires.
Many more lives would have been lost only for the red warning especially because the storm struck during daylight hours.
So a bit of cop on and respect to those who were badly affected by the weather yesterday.

sReq | uTeK

Hooks Golf Handicap wrote: »

A great brave call Pintman but I fear it will be lost here or even censored.
I mentioned earlier that Met E were wrong to extend the red warning beyond Waterford/Wexford & also got ridiculed.

Perhaps the relevant disaster committee which I believe are reconvening for a debrief this week listen to both sides of the debate.
I'd hate to see the power of a red warning being undermined by what was nothing more than an unremarkable windy day to many.

The red warning was justified. Dublin Airport at 1am was diverting planes to Cork, planes that were 2.5 hours circling trying to land. Gusts of 100kmh and wind speeeds of 55kts. But yes, don't worry its just a bit windy....

Floody Boreland

All conjecture. Weather stations will tell all.

.......

This post has been deleted.

Hammer Archer

Hooks Golf Handicap wrote: »

A great brave call Pintman but I fear it will be lost here or even censored.
I mentioned earlier that Met E were wrong to extend the red warning beyond Waterford/Wexford & also got ridiculed.

Perhaps the relevant disaster committee which I believe are reconvening for a debrief this week listen to both sides of the debate.
I'd hate to see the power of a red warning being undermined by what was nothing more than an unremarkable windy day to many.

Two of the three deaths yesterday were in areas not covered by the original red warnings. No wonder you got ridiculed.
To say it was "unremarkable" when 3 people died because of it is baffling. Were it not for the nationwide red warning, I've no doubt that there would have been more deaths.

Nettle Soup

Galway/Mayo struggled to get winds of 100km+
Those are not Red Warning stats.

My fear is that people will not take the Red status seriously in future.

.......

This post has been deleted.

Pintman Paddy Losty

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

Christ your logic. Deaths didn't reach the typical road user death toll = Storm not bad.

You did see the link I posted? Do you think that 100 year old trees with roots going down into concrete blow over with nominal gusts.

The storm, was horrific in some parts of the country, just because you didn't witness it 1st hand doesn't mean it wasn't.

However, I'll stop posting facts, when you have evidence in front of you and you choose to ignore it the intelligent person will just stop trying.

That's the point mate.

The storm might have been bad in some localised areas (the South coast). It was very unremarkable for most of the rest of the country. You can't seem to say that here without essentially being accused of dancing on the graves of the unfortunate people who passed away.

Hooks Golf Handicap

I'm afraid that the legacy of this storm is that a future red warning is not taken as serious or just ignored.

Met E had it bang on Friday evening, I want to know who made the incorrect decision to extend that warning countrywide, my fear is that politicans interfered at the 11th hour through a fear bandwagon lobby.

So we end up with a fiasco of schools closed for 2 days & business losing a days production because there were large gusts.

Drumpot

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

That's the point mate.

The storm might have been bad in some localised areas (the South coast). It was very unremarkable for most of the rest of the country. You can't seem to say that here without essentially being accused of dancing on the graves of the unfortunate people who passed away.

Ok captain hindsight, tell us your way of managing this.

There is a storm heading towards Ireland in a manner that has never happened before so we have no exact reference. Your tools to calculate where it will hit are suggesting it will be mostly south and south west of country but you have been surprised at the way the storm has acted so can’t be sure how strong it will be when it hits and what areas it might hit.

The nature of the storm is difficult to predict, the storm is the size of the country and it can shift a few miles at any stage which will have massive impacts on areas not warned. Lastly, you need to notify people at least 12-24 hours in advance so not to cause panic (people rushing to shops) and for people to prepare (clear gardens ).

You are confident that the storm could kill people and that not preparing the right areas will lead to deaths.

You have The floor, I am fascinated to hear your plan of action ....

HeidiHeidi

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

That's the point mate.

The storm might have been bad in some localised areas (the South coast). It was very unremarkable for most of the rest of the country. You can't seem to say that here without essentially being accused of dancing on the graves of the unfortunate people who passed away.

A) you're saying that with the benefit of hindsight. The councils/govt/emergency committees/Met Eireann didn't have that luxury in the lead up to the arrival of the storm. Ireland is a small country, the "bad" storm could have hit anywhere once it arrived.

can you not see that the consequences of the storm were low in a lot of parts of the country precisely because of the red warning? There were two trees down in my part of Dublin on what would have been busy commuter thoroughfares if most of the city hadn't stayed in, because of the warnings. A roof fell off an apartment block into a shopping centre carpark (or so I believe anyway, didn't witness it) which was empty, because of the warnings.

Anyway, I too suspect you're on a wind-up, but just wanted to make those points.

ETA - post above mine puts it brilliantly!!

oscarBravo

Nettle Soup wrote: »

My fear is that people will not take the Red status seriously in future.

Ugh, is there anything more infuriating than listening to people who don't have to make life-or-death decisions criticising the people who do?

I can't quite wrap my head around the level of arrogance that makes people think that they can make better decisions from the comfort of their keyboards than actual experts have to make out in the real world.

DOCARCH

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I too suspect you're on a wind-up.

+1

HeidiHeidi

oscarBravo wrote: »

Ugh, is there anything more infuriating than listening to people who don't have to make life-or-death decisions criticising the people who do?

I can't quite wrap my head around the level of arrogance that makes people think that they can make better decisions from the comfort of their keyboards than actual experts have to make out in the real world.

I wish I could thank this post about 10 times!

oscarBravo

Hooks Golf Handicap wrote: »

I'm afraid that the legacy of this storm is that a future red warning is not taken as serious or just ignored.

You mean people might decide that they know more than the actual experts whose job it is to make such judgement calls? Say it ain't so!

Met E had it bang on Friday evening, I want to know who made the incorrect decision to extend that warning countrywide...

Clearly some idiot who didn't have the benefit of your wisdom.

So we end up with a fiasco of schools closed for 2 days & business losing a days production because there were large gusts.

I told my employees to stay at home yesterday. I have no regrets, even though it wasn't as bad in Mayo as we expected.

barry181091

Can fallen trees be replanted? Some of these trees were old, magnificent oaks. Unfortunate if they would have to be taken away!

George Sunsnow

You know,only for the nationwide red warning,there would have been a lot more people out and maybe double or treble the fatalities Period

I’ve no significant damage on my farm few trees down but I was out checking cattle at 2 pm in Wicklow and the noise was deafening
Some ESB poles were moving with the strain on the wires-any more and they would have been down in the field

iamwhoiam

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hurricane-ophelia/please-cop-on-sister-of-r116-captain-dara-fitzpatrick-slams-reckless-idiots-who-ignored-warnings-during-ophelia-36234996.html


Well said this lady . Cop on indeed . Anyone who knowingly risks their lives in a storm should in my opinion be prosocuted .

PeterParker957

Why are people STILL downplaying this ???

People died and at least a fifth of the country is without power.

How much worse did you want it to be ????

_Dara_

Rebelbrowser wrote: »

Really subtle trolling. No one will notice what you are up to. Keep up the good work.

Subtle? Was very obvious to me that every post of his re: the storm has been trolling.

FrancieBrady

Hooks Golf Handicap wrote: »

I'm afraid that the legacy of this storm is that a future red warning is not taken as serious or just ignored.

Met E had it bang on Friday evening, I want to know who made the incorrect decision to extend that warning countrywide, my fear is that politicans interfered at the 11th hour through a fear bandwagon lobby.

So we end up with a fiasco of schools closed for 2 days & business losing a days production because there were large gusts.

You go right ahead and ignore them. That is what the idiots surfing and swimming where doing.

harr

Same people would be giving out today if no red warning was extended county wide and 10 or more died which would have happened if they had of left it on orange...the poor people who died were in areas that were originally orange areas.
The huge tress that fell in my area all fell around lunch time and the roads that they fell on would have been very busy with cars and in fact one poor man had a tree fall on his car and was lucky to survive with minor injuries.

PeterParker957

iamwhoiam wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hurricane-ophelia/please-cop-on-sister-of-r116-captain-dara-fitzpatrick-slams-reckless-idiots-who-ignored-warnings-during-ophelia-36234996.html


Well said this lady . Cop on indeed . Anyone who knowingly risks their lives in a storm should in my opinion be prosocuted .

I'm sure this may be an unpopular opinion but had everyone needed the warnings and did as advised we'd have had zero fatalities.