fraxinus1 wrote: » I have been out and about around South Donegal and cannot find any evidence apart from leaves that justified putting the north west under a RED warning. Neighbours are baffled. I understand people died and that's terrible and power lost but the fact remains, only four counties reached the threshold that triggers a RED alert. My worry is that next time a red alert is called people in the bulk of the country will not take it seriously. I am not trolling. I am not downplaying matters but this event was a south coast event. 100kmph gusts in the northwest happens several times a year. I think Met E had it spot on with their forecast on Friday when they had the SW under a RED. They should have left it at that. The rest of the country was under an orange alert which in the NW was a stretch too but it would have been enough to make people take heed. Majority of people are not stupid, if there is a severe storm blowing most parents would not put children out to school. As for the media, let's all be honest it was way over the top. TV crews struggled to find damage outside the southern counties. The winds in Sligo town barely touched gale force and Eileen Magnier was clearly feeling silly reporting live from there.
anna080 wrote: » Can't believe people are actually saying they'll disgregard future red warnings because of yesterday. Have you ever heard anything as moronic in your life? I've read a lot of crap over the few days but THAT takes the biscuit.
Nettle Soup wrote: » Red or Orange, nobody should go out with a chainsaw in a storm. That was a needless death.
_Dara_ wrote: » Two of the deaths occurred in areas that were originally under an orange alert. This event was unique and there were no real past events to call on to figure out how this might pan out. So they were absolutely correct to issue a nationwide red warning.
fraxinus1 wrote: » I think Met E had it spot on with their forecast on Friday when they had the SW under a RED. They should have left it at that. The rest of the country was under an orange alert which in the NW was a stretch too but it would have been enough to make people take heed.
bucketybuck wrote: » The gas thing is the amount of people in this thread on Sunday criticising the fact that there hadn't yet been a full country red alert. And now people criticise that there was a full country red alert. They can't win.
Nettle Soup wrote: » shampoosuicide wrote: » france is 50 to 60 times the size of ireland France is 9 times bigger than Ireland.
shampoosuicide wrote: » france is 50 to 60 times the size of ireland
Drumpot wrote: » 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 ....
Nettle Soup wrote: » fraxinus1 wrote: » I have been out and about around South Donegal and cannot find any evidence apart from leaves that justified putting the north west under a RED warning. Neighbours are baffled. I understand people died and that's terrible and power lost but the fact remains, only four counties reached the threshold that triggers a RED alert. My worry is that next time a red alert is called people in the bulk of the country will not take it seriously. That's exactly the sentiment in Galway. People are baffled. Especially the fact that the schools are closed.
fraxinus1 wrote: » I have been out and about around South Donegal and cannot find any evidence apart from leaves that justified putting the north west under a RED warning. Neighbours are baffled. I understand people died and that's terrible and power lost but the fact remains, only four counties reached the threshold that triggers a RED alert. My worry is that next time a red alert is called people in the bulk of the country will not take it seriously.
FrancieBrady wrote: » One wonders would Mary's reaction to 50 or 60 deaths be to shrug and point to a much bigger loss of life as a justification for not doing anything to take preventative measures. :rolleyes:
There was a sting jet which hit just off the south coast. If that hit over land, we would have seen major hurricane strength winds over populated areas Sting jets are a 'now cast' situation, it's not currently possible to predict if or where they will form with any precision using existing technology The National red alert was absolutely the right call given the danger associated with this storm. A lot of people were severely impacted up to and including the tragic loss of life, and places that were not severely affected could easily have been if the track had shifted by even a small amount, well within the margin of error of the 24 hour outlook from Friday into Saturday.
John.Icy wrote: » Keeping people inside helps prevent the chance of deaths occuring, but those on here yesterday who believed there would have been hundreds of deaths if more people were out and about? Maybe there could have been, but historically since the night of the big wind, no, very unlikely.
beveragelady wrote: » I've been following this thread since it started, and I'm grateful for the advance warning it gave me. My little house took a terrible battering but emerged relatively unscathed, partly because I was able to put in some time preparing. Still, it was properly frightening for an hour or two yesterday. I'm amazed now to read so many comments from people who seem to genuinely not understand how warnings work. It might help to think of it like this: "There's bad weather coming. It looks like it's going to be dangerous. We have no way of knowing exactly how dangerous or exactly where it will hit. EVERYBODY prepare for it. EVERYBODY stay inside. EVERYBODY behave as though you're going to get the worst of it so that if you do get the worst of it you'll be OK." You wear your seatbelt every time you sit into your car. What percentage of car journeys end in impacts that call upon the seatbelt to save you? Yet you still wear it as a precaution because you're not a complete idiot. We are careful in case the worst happens. We are then grateful if the worst didn't happen to us.
Cantona's Collars wrote: » RTE didn't really pay attention to the forecasting,even the unpaid enthusiasts here knew the worst weather was going to be along the South coast yet they in media land have this fixation that a storm equals the west of Ireland. Down here in the SE we don't often see the big storms but yesterday we had 12 hours of high winds and huge gusts.Every few minutes on social media reports came in of premises having roofs ripped off and every 2nd road blocked with fallen trees. One school won't be open in Wexford for a while yet as they go find where the roof landed.
shampoosuicide wrote: » france is 50 to 60 times the size of
barry181091 wrote: » Can fallen trees be replanted? Some of these trees were old, magnificent oaks. Unfortunate if they would have to be taken away!
