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

floorpie

spockety wrote: »

I could upload a hundred more images like this from around Dublin. Pity anyone standing under 'non events' like these.

Not my picture, but this happened at, effectively, a pedestrian crossing for school children at what would have been going-home time had the red status not been issued. And these are trees that school children stand under daily while waiting for parents to collect them.



Some posters here must think that they can spot and avoid debris like they're in the Matrix or something. These accidents will happen out of the blue, and faster than your senses will be able to perceive. One person having walked around without incident means precisely zero, with regard to how safe the country was.

MadYaker

Why don't people listen to Met Eireann? 2 of the people who died were killed by tress falling on the storm because they were driving in the middle of it and the 3rd guy was out with a chainsaw cutting down a tree during the storm! Tragic and needless.

Professor Moriarty

MadYaker wrote: »

Why don't people listen to Met Eireann? 2 of the people who died were killed by tress falling on the storm because they were driving in the middle of it and the 3rd guy was out with a chainsaw cutting down a tree during the storm! Tragic and needless.

Tragic indeed, and on the face of it, needless. However, unless one knows precisely why people decided to drive or the circumstances under which that man decided to work on the tree, then commenting on the reasons for their deaths is judgemental speculation.

__..__

I wonder if any of the people killed or injured were on their way to or from work.
And if so what guidance had their companies given to the staff. Or did the companies just purposefully avoid guidance so that people would come in.

maryishere

There are an awful lot of trees in this country which are in a dangerous condition, and reaching right over roads. In other countries they are usually cut down before they blow down. Why do councils not force landowners to cut down or trim dangerous trees?

Nettle Soup

On the plus side, it's a lovely day today. I think many people learned a lot about weather and warnings over the past week. Many lessons learned too. I hope everyone gets their ESB back soon. Until the next storm...

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

elperello

I know of a bridge club that went ahead with their regular Monday night session last night.
Think about it, a bunch of mostly elderly people venturing out by car and on foot in the middle of a red alert to play cards!

maryishere

elperello wrote: »

Think about it, a bunch of mostly elderly people venturing out by car and on foot in the middle of a red alert to play cards!

In some parts of the country the storm was not bad, a bit of wind but some elderly people say they have seen a lot more wind in some other storms.

JaMarcusHustle

__..__ wrote: »

I wonder if any of the people killed or injured were on their way to or from work.
And if so what guidance had their companies given to the staff. Or did the companies just purposefully avoid guidance so that people would come in.

According to the Independent, one of them was.

Re: the accident in Ravensdale:

It is believed the married father-of-two had been travelling home early from work due to the storm when tragedy struck.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hurricane-ophelia/an-absolute-tragedy-tributes-paid-to-three-victims-of-storm-ophelia-36234934.html

NIMAN

Thats just bad luck, don't think we can apportion blame on his employer. He was let off early after all to get home before the worst of it.

FrancieBrady

NIMAN wrote: »

Thats just bad luck, don't think we can apportion blame on his employer. He was let off early after all to get home before the worst of it.

If he hadn't have had to go in at all?

elperello

maryishere wrote: »

In some parts of the country the storm was not bad, a bit of wind but some elderly people say they have seen a lot more wind in some other storms.

It was quite bad in the area at the time, dark wet and very windy.Branches and trees had come down in an earlier phase of the storm.

There was a red alert and people were told to stay indoors.

floorpie

maryishere wrote: »

In some parts of the country the storm was not bad, a bit of wind but some elderly people say they have seen a lot more wind in some other storms.

You also had posters on here in Dublin declaring that the storm was nothing, at 8-9am, seemingly unable to comprehend the concept of both 'time' and 'space'. I think that people should not base their assessment of safety on personal experience given how dumb the average person is (including myself in that).

If met offices internationally said that conditions would be life threatening then just take it easy for one day in your life.

__..__

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

According to the Independent, one of them was.

Re: the accident in Ravensdale:



http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hurricane-ophelia/an-absolute-tragedy-tributes-paid-to-three-victims-of-storm-ophelia-36234934.html

I would love to know if his company even tried to contact him and other staff the night before to tell them not to come in because they would be at risk on the way home. And if they told everyone who arrived in the morning to go right back home because of the danger.
I bet they waited til people were finished their work before sending them home into the worst of the storm.

maryishere

floorpie wrote: »

If met offices internationally said that conditions would be life threatening...

they did not though.
windguru forecasts for parts of the county showed gusts of only 90 kph, which proved correct.

sullivlo

I’m in northside dublin.

We heeded the weather warning and tied down the bins and took necessary precautions.

I spent the morning cleaning up the garden. The next door neighbours trees shed leaves into us last night. The neighbour on the other side has apple trees and there were a few blown into our place. There was some minor wind damage on other things in the house, and some of the roof slats came loose. We had much worse wind previously in the garden, but we hadn’t been prepared then so would it have been much different?

I live 2km from a school, which my cousin attends. There were reports of a tree falling outside the school at around 3.45. School gets out at 4. Too risky to have students in school/parents driving to collect them.

Red warning justified for school closures, IMO.

I also work in a school. I wanted to go into school today. But from a safety point of view schools need to be checked before the school reopens to make sure there is no damage.

DCU campus had fallen trees. Had the campus been open as normal, there could have been someone under a falling tree.

Our power flickered last night. We didn’t lose it I don’t think. But my neighbour has COPD and is on oxygen 24/7. Because of the red warning he was able to make plans in case the power did go.

I have friends in cork. They have no electricity or water. My friends dad has ulcerative colitis and has a flare up currently and they have no water in the house.

Red warning justified. I think we should be thankful that there weren’t more casualties rather than trying to argue that it should have been an orange warning.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Have a look at Dublin Fire Brigade twitter and their live map of incidents from yesterday, if you think it was a non event in Dublin.

FrancieBrady

maryishere wrote: »

they did not though.
windguru forecasts for parts of the county showed gusts of only 90 kph, which proved correct.

Met.ie's red alert said there was a threat to life.

My name is URL

maryishere wrote: »

they did not though.
windguru forecasts for parts of the county showed gusts of only 90 kph, which proved correct.

And? A guy died in Louth despite windspeeds there being quite low compared to other places.

I wonder how many others could have been killed or injured had the Red warning not been in place.

You can moan all you want about having your precious life disrupted for 1-2 days, most right minded people will appreciate the steps authorities took to protect lives.

floorpie

maryishere wrote: »

they did not though.
windguru forecasts for parts of the county showed gusts of only 90 kph, which proved correct.

Hopefully we can get everybody in the country using WindGuru Free and navigating around based on dynamic pressure charts before the next one.

JaMarcusHustle

__..__ wrote: »

I would love to know if his company even tried to contact him and other staff the night before to tell them not to come in because they would be at risk on the way home. And if they told everyone who arrived in the morning to go right back home because of the danger.
I bet they waited til people were finished their work before sending them home into the worst of the storm.

I used to work there (it's a big multi-national company) and I asked around. There was no communication at all from senior management either the night before or yesterday morning. Some staff made their own decision not to go in. Those that did go in left early either (i) of their own accord, or (ii) discussing it with their team/line manager.

Cantona's Collars

Took a walk through a local forest earlier,very minor damage compared to Darwin mainly due to the wind direction being different.Spoke to a local farmer who'd just finished removing a tree from a shed.
Fair play to those out early this morning that cleared the roads.The ones I was on yesterday were like a war zone,all clear today.

__..__

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

I used to work there (it's a big multi-national company) and I asked around. There was no communication at all from senior management either the night before or yesterday morning. Some staff made their own decision not to go in. Those that did go in left early either (i) of their own accord, or (ii) discussing it with their team/line manager.

I just got a message from someone else who said they worked in that company. Turns out their Dublin office isn't far from my office. The person said that people contacted their managers the night before and either received no reply or were told that the manager didn't know. Nobody made a decision.
And that company have a mass texting system but didn't use it. Now they are trying to find out if it was a hr decision or if someone told hr what to do. Whoever made the decision cost a staff member their life it would seem.
I really hope this all comes out so the entire country learn from this.

SnakePlissken

fraxinus1 wrote: »

Colby Tall Shootout wrote: »

There are hundreds of trees down around Dublin with several roads blocked. Power is still out in several locations around Dublin. There is damage to lots of cars and homes around Dublin. People referencing it being a non-event in Dublin are misinformed. It was thankfully not as bad as for the south and south east but it was a significant event and if people had gone about their business as normal in Dublin then I am sure there would have been more fatalities.

I find these posts baffling.

Not true. Hundreds of trees were not felled in Dublin.

You must have had a busy morning counting all the felled trees in Dublin to state your opinion as fact.

FrancieBrady

__..__ wrote: »

I just got a message from someone else who said they worked in that company. Turns out their Dublin office isn't far from my office. The person said that people contacted their managers the night before and either received no reply or were told that the manager didn't know. Nobody made a decision.
And that company have a mass texting system but didn't use it. Now they are trying to find out if it was a hr decision or if someone told hr what to do. Whoever made the decision cost a staff member their life it would seem.
I really hope this all comes out so the entire country learn from this.

It won't matter because according to some he should have been making his own decision based on what he could see around him or some site on the internet. :rolleyes:

eleventh

floorpie wrote: »

Hopefully we can get everybody in the country using WindGuru Free and navigating around based on dynamic pressure charts before the next one.

Is this serious or sarcasm? I'm not familiar with WindGuru, going to look it up.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I understand the anger at companies who didn't make a definitive decision on opening yesterday but the emergency people were very clear from early yesterday about staying where you were, whether that was at home or in work, until the storm had passed. If a company told people to come into work they shouldn't have sent them home at all.

loveisdivine

The one in Ravensdale was quite eye opening for me as such. We live in the area, about 5 minutes from where it happened. I asked my line manager at 7am in the morning if we were open and only received a reply at 8.15 ( after I was almost at work in Dublin) that he hadn't heard otherwise.

Management then went back and forth for the next few hours as to whether they would close or not, only finally letting us go at 1pm. Thankfully my drive back was uneventful, except for a couple of miles of extremely forceful winds pushing me around a bit.

That could easily have been me. The small country road our house is on is lined with trees of various sizes with quite a few overhanging branches.

The most frustrating part was how long it took them to make a decision.

floorpie

eleventh wrote: »

Is this serious or sarcasm? I'm not familiar with WindGuru, going to look it up.

I was being sarcastic

I don't think elderly people should be checking an online app to see if they're moving towards bad conditions when going to play bridge, at a time when even an American agency was saying "preparations to protect lives should be complete" on Sunday. People were told to stay in doors, stay indoors imo.