nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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

Samaris

Mod note

This is a busy thread and as a result the Mod Team will be taking a zero Tolerance approach to trolling and flaming

Don’t say you weren’t warned!!

And please don’t feed
Thanks

'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?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

secman

Took a spin down to North wexford last night, emptied the freezer, salvaged about half of the contents. Remembered I had a petrol generator, brand new in a box in the garage, loaned it to a neighbour, headed back up to Dublin. I was in work on Monday up to about 2 o'clock, driving home was like driving on Christmas day, roads were almost completely empty. That alone most certainly saved lives from falling tree's.
South of the country was hammered, just look at esb power check map. Can't put a price on a "life" everything thing else can be replaced. We are paying our staff whether they showed up , and were later sent home or stayed at home, they all made judgement calls for different reasons.
Condolences to the families of the 3 people who lost their lives.... there go I but for the grace of God.

Mountainsandh

Making the most of mobile coverage partially restored here (ie very poor but it's something). West Waterford. Very thankful for red warning, and school closures. I have often felt I took chances with my health/life in times of bad snow/floods just because I hate missing work (teacher). I didn't have to take chances this time, just as good since there were 2 live wires and 5 fallen trees only on the 3 mile section to the main road (itself blocked by more fallen trees).
Don't think we'll have electricity back for a while, water and heating gone too since they're electricity dependant, looking forward to work back in civilisation today.
It's so easy to pass judgement when you're nice and cosy in an unaffected Dublin suburb.
If you'll excuse me I have to go boil an economical ration of water I got in tesco yesterday on my precious gas hob for a semblance of hygiene to face the work day. It was great I had the bathtub full before the storm thanks to red warning but it only lasts so long with kids.
Red warning and work/school closures saved many lives and saved many working people from injury here so even economically it made great sense.

Pro tip : ensure torchlights have a stand or lanyard when purchasing, there are many activities that require both hands and light from above, like filling toilet cistern or a cup of tea in the dark

pad199207

To be down in South Wexford last night was surreal. There’s a high bit on Forth Mountain where you can view south and usually see the lights of all the towns and villages.

Last night just a black darkness across the land with the odd red beacon light from a water tower or wind turbine.

So lucky in Kildare to have electricity

MidMan25

juneg wrote: »

On balance was storm Ophelia worst in Cork where it first made landfall? It was scary looking at the gardens where the school roof blew into, like if someone had just gone out into their own perfectly secured back garden they could have been killed by it.

Without a doubt

juneg

On balance was storm Ophelia worst in Cork where it first made landfall? It was scary looking at the gardens where the school roof blew into, like if someone had just gone out into their own perfectly secured back garden they could have been killed by it.

Gavlor

https://twitter.com/severeweathereu/status/920321053636874240

Autochange

LirW wrote: »

We're pretty rural and had power from 7pm to 11pm, since then it was gone again and didn't come back. We packed our stuff and left for Dublin to stay with my In-laws. We have a little baby and it's highly inconvenient without power and hot water since we have to make her bottles. My 7yo will miss school for the coming two days, I feel sorry for that but we don't have heating, shower, toilet and no kettle to boil water for the baby on a regular base.
Estimated time for restore is the 20th.

Our power was out for half an hour so i fired up the petrol engine generator. ESB had it back on before the spuds were boiled.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

ESB was saying that some people may be without power for up to 10 days.
I wonder if they're taking the possibility of more bad weather over the weekend into account there?

LirW

We're pretty rural and had power from 7pm to 11pm, since then it was gone again and didn't come back. We packed our stuff and left for Dublin to stay with my In-laws. We have a little baby and it's highly inconvenient without power and hot water since we have to make her bottles. My 7yo will miss school for the coming two days, I feel sorry for that but we don't have heating, shower, toilet and no kettle to boil water for the baby on a regular base.
Estimated time for restore is the 20th.

MidMan25

Castlemartyr and Cloyne in Cork - Estimated power restore time 19th Oct.

Hard to believe power is going to be out for 72 hours+ for 1000s of homes so close to major roads and towns.

WoolyJumper

Well got home to find the electricity was back. Heating on, had a hot shower and a hot meal so the bad mood has lifted. No internet yet (besides using my phone as a hotspot) but I won't complain. Well done to the ESB. And thanks to everyone here. I was more prepared that I would have been otherwise.

I can't imagine what it will be life for the people who will be without electricity for up to 10 days. I was cracking up with it gone for just 2 days

Aineoil

A big thank you to M.T. Cranium. Very informed posts.

Dank Janniels

Aineoil wrote: »

Saving lives and preventing injury is The most important thing.

any reports of injuries?

Estrellita

I just want to say a big thank you to those of you who posted charts and kept us up to date with the latest information on ex-hurricane Ophelia. I had been watching MT's thread avidly since it started on the 11th, and by extension the preparation threads etc also.

It allowed me to alert people who ordinarily might have missed the forecasted weather, and for those that knew of it I was able to drill it into some how bad things could potentially get. It meant we were all in the know well enough in advance to make sure we had prepared with our candles, torches, food and water to avoid having to go out at all yesterday, as we were advised.

While 3 people unfortunately lost their lives yesterday, I'm confident that the red warning given for Ireland avoided a lot more injuries, tragedies, and even further pressure on emergency services.

But as I said, thanks again to those who took the time to post charts and forecast predictions within the weather forum. Much appreciated.

Aineoil

Saving lives and preventing injury is The most important thing.

BoatMad

spookwoman wrote: »

I think there are quite a few business owners like that out there :mad:

They tend not to stay in business too long though

DOCARCH

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Has anyone looked at the cost of the blanket warning?

Having the entire nation at home and not working must have had a massive economic impact?

Mod Note: Just not going there!

It's irrelevant, especially to a weather forum, if economic cost needs to be weighed up/debated vs. saving lives/injury.

There has been enough debate in here today on related matters without going down this (side) route.

spookwoman

gerryirl wrote: »

holy god what a post.. Run a business.. You'd not run a bath with an attitude like that

I think there are quite a few business owners like that out there :mad:

Sam Quentin

The ESB rock

And with the help of those 2 'volunteers' handling live wires and shimmying up poles with no harness's we'll have power back in no time at-all at-all....

YES YOU'VE GUESSED WHO THE VOLUNTEERS ARE!?: The 2 lads who were jumping of the pier in Galway at the height of the storm :P

Aineoil

Well done to the ESB, I can't praise them enough. We were without electricity (North Clare) for only five hours yesterday before they fixed

the fault and we were back on the grid.

gerryirl

jcd5971 wrote: »

I think taking the day off is perfectly understandable.

But expecting to get paid to stay home is a bit much,especially if the business was open.

If i was the owner I'd take your wage for day and split it between the staff who did come in as a bonus.

Wouldn't hold it against you as a negative either though its a tough choice to make. I just would not pay you for it.

holy god what a post.. Run a business.. You'd not run a bath with an attitude like that

Pintman Paddy Losty

Has anyone looked at the cost of the blanket warning?

Having the entire nation at home and not working must have had a massive economic impact?

[Deleted User]

Only have power and internet to post here thanks to a local supermacs. :P Power down, no water and a massive amount of trees down around our area on the border of Limerick/Tipp. Kind of unbelievable that UL was basically pushing for people like me to come in by running things today, the road was totally blocked until later today... I know they said attendance wasn't necessary today and that people who couldn't get anywhere wouldn't be "disadvantaged" but surely just the act of running lectures/tutorials and labs puts us at a disadvantage in the first place? Seems like the only reason they would close is if a tree hit a building...

That's my complaint anyway and I know it's not the end of the world. Schools right to stay closed just so people could assess damage, may not have been necessary in some parts of the country but it's a total of 12 hours they've lost, not the end of the world and easily repaid later.

One concern that's not just a first world problem with my uni is that we have a neighbour who requires the power to be back up pretty quick now (medical equipment), ESB seems to be racing to get it back up for our area due to that (there were vans checking the area last night when the worst had past and a few hours ago a convoy of trucks arrived), hopefully they can make swift work of getting power to those people who need it most.

M.T. Cranium

My suspicion is that there would be more serious complaints the other way round, especially for Dublin, had they gone county by county with how the models were showing the outcome (on Saturday when the decision was made) Dublin to an experienced forecaster would be looking part red (level 3) and part orange (level 2) which I think legally means you have to choose level 3, same goes for some other counties, if you think any part will sustain level 3 then you have to apply that to the whole county. The system is not designed to be broken down into smaller geographical units and at some point you can see where random outcomes would overwhelm any effort to be 100% precise.

But some people seem to be missing the point that the large-scale red warning was chosen to avoid having people travelling from places that might have gotten orange warnings into areas that would have red warning conditions. This happens a lot when some people make the mistake of thinking that the forecast for their location will apply to all locations along a route they propose to travel. When the boundary between red and orange seems to be running somewhat patchwork quilt style through a heavily populated region like central Leinster then perhaps you have to err on the side of caution.

A red warning was certainly justified for Kildare and probably for coastal areas of Dublin, Meath and Louth, so you had maybe a wedge in between that remained orange -- difficult to see how that can be applied to such things as education systems that are administered county wide. You obviously have to go with the stronger warning, you can't say well some will be fine so let's keep them all open.

DOCARCH

allthedoyles wrote: »

Our sky dish has moved . Is there a thread on boards about problems with Sky?

Excellent thread here: http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1598

Donal55

allthedoyles wrote: »

Our sky dish has moved . Is there a thread on boards about problems with Sky ?
I rang today but can't get through . Wondering is there a call out charge for them to get up on the roof or does subscription cover costs ?

In the last storm my dish moved, sky q system, and we logged a call and 10 days later an egr came out and sorted without a call fee.

Thank god it didnt move yesterday, the egr the last time took it from the roof & refixed it to the gable end with plenty of brackets.

r93kaey5p2izun

I see SDCC report 90-100 trees down in their area - they're just one of four local authorities in Dublin. Fake news I guess since it was just that one tree felled in Clondalkin and a total non-event according certain experts here.

allthedoyles

Our sky dish has moved . Is there a thread on boards about problems with Sky ?
I rang today but can't get through . Wondering is there a call out charge for them to get up on the roof or does subscription cover costs ?

spookwoman

Deleted User wrote: »

Friend of mine in Waterford works for a day centre, even though all the users were told to stay home she was still expected to be in to do paperwork for the day. She took it off as annual leave, her spot in Waterford got an awful battering, said she was very scared at points and the power was down for a few hours! Couldn't believe how irresponsible some employers were expecting people to travel to work in that.

Gusts of 70kph started in waterford city very early on in the morning. I think I saw one for 6am or so. By 12.27 we were up to 109.3. All radio stations were running the warning every 15 mins. "people are advised to stay at home, no unnecessary travel or other outdoor activities" TV was running updates. I under stand emergency services had to go out in that but joe bloggs voluntarily heading out and employers expecting people to go out in that was nuts, even irresponsible because if anything happened you were then putting the lives of other people at risk.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Flying Fox wrote: »

Wouldn't the sensible thing be to adhere to the red alert warnings and not bring staff in at all? I honestly don't understand why people would second guess the experts with this "ah sure it's grand" nonsense. It wasn't, for a whole lot of people. And for those that got through it ok, was it not better to be on the safe side and then appreciate that it didn't cause any hassle?

I agree, better to be safe than sorry, all I'm saying is that any company that did bring their staff in but then changed their mind should have recommended their staff remain in the office, shop, whatever, until the storm had passed, assuming the building they're in is secure. At the very least they should have checked the time frames given for the storm hitting and not sent them out into the middle of it.