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

Samaris

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'Scuse me if I'm breaking any rules of Weather here with another thread, but didn't want to derail the main thread with too much chatter.

Guessing a lot of people (particularly us mostly-lurkers) might be in the same boat as me - not really sure what this all means on the ground in terms of preparation - and even if it's not too awful, I for one would prefer to be over-prepared rather than under-prepared! (At the moment, I don't feel that prepared at all!)

I'm living in a pretty exposed place for this particular set of indicators (on a narrow, south-west jutting peninsula off the Galway coast) and thus somewhat nervous about it. We're moving the bedroom to the sitting room as I've always been a bit dubious about the tall trees on that side of the house, but apart from that, sheltering the car (somehow) and ensuring there's as little potential debris as possible, I'm a bit at a loss. Water, candles might be an idea to get in.

Any more experienced people have ideas? Or what are others in the firing line doing?

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Pwindedd

I'm not going too mad. Just make sure all the devices are charged. Put the wheelie bins flat on their sides against the wall in garden. Fill a bucket or two with water Sunday night. Not sure what to do about car though. I can put it on my drive but it's close to house so if rooftiles start flying off it might be worse than if I left it out in the street which is away from houses but then you've got wheelie bins and rogue trampolines to worry about. It's a rental property and I'm not sure how good my roof is. Massive tree in front garden too. Hopefully it stays put.

MJohnston

Call me Al wrote: »

Does anyone have an indication as to how long this event is to last?
Are flights expected to be delayed substantially through DUB?
We are scheduled to land @5.30pm with Ryanair and I'm hopeful that this a fast moving event and that it will pass over within a few hours.

Am I deluding myself :-)

Monday at 5:30? If so, I gave someone else this advice earlier in the thread, but find a hotel near the airport you're supposed to be leaving from, one that allows last minute cancellations, and book it now.

I don't know about flights in general, but I'd imagine Ryanair will cancel any flights at the drop of the hat (especially in their current situation) and this has high enough probability of disrupting DUB operations around the Monday 5:30 timeframe.

Widdershins

Is it necessary to tape the windows? Worried about the roof

Call me Al

Does anyone have an indication as to how long this event is to last?
Are flights expected to be delayed substantially through DUB?
We are scheduled to land @5.30pm with Ryanair and I'm hopeful that this a fast moving event and that it will pass over within a few hours.

Am I deluding myself :-)

Doltanian

I am taking down my 1 metre satellite dish tomorrow from the side of the house and i'll store it in my garage, I use it for RTE Saorsat, this has the potential to rip the blocks out of the wall it is mounted on. I will let my Sky dish up as it is a perforated mesh with a smaller footprint. I will fill barrels of water in my timber garden shed to add one tonne of ballast to hold it down. All Kerry flags have been brought indoors until next summer.

MJohnston

I'm in Dublin, so not expecting anything too bad but the main things I'm keeping in mind are that (a) the electricity going out is the most likely impact for most of the country (b) debris from roof tiles and bins will be a problem no matter how strong (c) don't trust trees.

1. Make sure batteries for torches are fully charged, and that there are some spares around. I have a windup torch as well which is a great bit of kit to have.
2. Get some candles and matches/lighters for them.
3. We have some Britta jugs that I'll make sure are filled, and I'll probably pick up a couple of big bottles just to be sure (I'm extremely unconcerned about running out of water, but it's not perishable and not expensive so I don't mind).
4. Moving all garden furniture and loose garden items into our back office shed, including bikes (we have a big tree hanging above said office shed, but there's not much I can do about that at this stage, at least it is in a spot where it won't threaten the main house at all)
5. We have a gas oven, so I'm not worried about food, but I will need the matches/lighters above because the sparking mechanism runs on electric.
6. I'll make sure there are some cooked snacks in the fridge just in case (we have a toddler so we could do without food ourselves but he'll complain!)
7. I'll do my weekly shop tomorrow, but I'm going to avoid buying too much fridge food and any frozen food, again just in case.
8. Minor thing, but I'm going to chain lock our front gate closed in case it decides to start waving about, which would hit the cars.
9. Charging all our portable phone chargers, I have a nice Anker one with 6-7 full charges worth of battery for phones, I could easily charge them in the car if all else fails, but it's nice to not have to go outside!
10. Keeping laptops and tablets fully charged, no point in letting an electricity outage stop me from doing a bit of online work, I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot.
11. Picking out a nice book to read just in case!

I'll also be checking in with our elderly neighbours if the power goes out, and I'll have spares of most of the above just in case they need something.

If power does go out, the good thing is it's a fairly mild time of year so heating shouldn't be an issue.

We also don't need to worry about kids going to school, but for some people that will be a big consideration, especially if they normally go to work when the kids are at school.

Additionally, I freelance from home and my wife has a job that lets her occasionally work from home, so I think we'll both make sure we don't need to travel anywhere on Monday.

The final thing I would say is - some people will say this is taking it far too seriously or that I'm overhyping things. But the fact is that nothing I have prepared with or bought to prepare is perishable or has a limited shelf-life, and will undoubtedly come in useful at some point in the future if this storm isn't so bad. The precautions I'm taking are extremely minor, and will not affect my life in any great way at all. I take this approach - if I didn't take any of these minor precautions and the storm turned out to be bad, it would at best be a really stressful situation, at worst it could be life-threatening for some. If I do take these steps, and the storm turns out to be nothing at all, I still have these supplies for any future storm or situation that is dangerous, and I am not out of pocket in any way. Personally I think it's a no-brainer to take minor steps like this, and if people think you're silly for doing it, tell them to just go and do it their own way.

Irish Steve

The following is not essentials but gives some ideas on what may be appropriate if you are in a vulnerable area at risk of losing power for any period of time.

Make sure that the vehicles are not low on fuel, it could be several days before you can top up if there is significant damage to the ESB distribution network, and have some cash about the place, if the power is out over a wide area, things like credit and debit cards won't be usable, so topping up on supplies may not be possible in the same way, while larger supermarkets tend to have backup generators because of the fridges, there's no certainty that things like broadband won't be disrupted if the outages cover a wide enough area.

If you have an outdoor oil storage tank and there's not a lot of oil in it, the non standard direction of this storm may mean it gets moved (or worse), so tying it down or similar might not be a bad idea.

If you are single fuel (electric) for cooking, try and make sure you have snack type things that don't need heating, as if the electric is out, that means no cooking or water heating capability, so even things like cup soups are not going to be possible.

If your water comes via a pump, some reserve stock of bottled water is a good idea.

For safety, torches with reserve batteries are safer than candles.

A battery operated radio may be appropriate in order to keep up to date with news and weather information. A car radio is a viable option here, just to make sure that people are aware of the alternatives.

Try to ensure that mobile phone batteries are topped up before Monday, and if the power is out over a wide area for any length of time, turn the phone off to save the battery, if the network goes down, the phone will increase power usage to try and find an alternate connection, which it may not be able to do.

If you have bottled gas, make sure that your cylinder is not too low, as it will be providing a lot more than usual if the electric is out, and if a gas hob, a kettle that can be heated on gas is better (safer) than a saucepan for boiling water for things like drinks or soup. If a gas hob, make sure you have matches or a lighter, as if electric is out, the spark ignition on a gas hob probably won't work.

If you take prescription drugs on a regular basis, make sure that you won't run out over the next few days, while you may be able to get to the pharmacist, if phones and power are out for any length of time, they may not be able to get stock in for a few days.

If you are gas or oil heating, and have an open fire option, it might be worth getting some coal or peat in, just in case of power being out, as nether oil or gas heating will work without power.

Any or all of the above may not be necessary, it's going to be very much dependent on how much infrastructure is affected, and how wide an area is damaged, and yes, some of the items above may be seen as overkill or alarmist, what I've tried to do is mention things that people may not otherwise think of until it's too late to do anything about them.

lottpaul

We are right in the path of the storm here in west Kerry. We always have a supply of candles, a camping stove and a few extra gas canisters, just in case, and make sure all of the phones, ipads etc are fully charged. Batteries for radio or torches too. If you have a water supply that needs a pump then you'll want some bottled water too. Other than that, just make sure there's nothing loose lying around outside, lock shed doors, lock the gates or tie some wire etc around it to stop it blowing open. Local radio is always a better source of info than RTE for updates on road closures etc.
Keep away from the shore - it might look exciting but it's too dangerous. Keep travel to a minimum.