⚠️ Storm Éowyn - Fri 24.01.25 (**Please read Mod Instruction in OP.**)

Ah the moneytree theory

Since you're so outraged I suggest you go out and find an elderly person in a home without power and pay for Their hotel accommodation. Let's know how you get on.

This is what needs to be done for future events.

The "hubs" are predominately voluntary organisations/buildings that are specificilly for another purpose that just opened - nothing more than that - as you've outlined without these good people there wouldn't be hubs instead of having a plan in place prior to these events around services available, contact details, and a bit of organisation.

Many houses will, after this, be better setup for future events and you'd hope that all groups involved would learn some lessons.

So a country with a budget surplus forecast at $9billion this year cannot afford to sped a bit on disaster management?

And even if there wasn't massive budget surplus, spending ondisaster recovery is always a worthwhile investment, both morally and economically

Following the 2010 ice and snow, local authorities got their act together to ensure salt and gritting supplies would be better stocked and better planning for snow-ice events was implemented. This was during a recession, the money was still found and spent wisely. Subsequent snow-ice events were much better managed.

That 2010 event was the catapult for creating the Emergency Management Group which now seems to just be a waffling shop. There are alot of very, very highly paid people sitting at these meetings and they cannot seem to get any sort of plan together.

The country is crying out for an advance flood warning system as far back as the soaking wet winter of 2015. Nothing is implemented a whole decade later with promises that 'something is in the pipeline' and it could be 2027 or beyond. That is a joke.

The trouble in this country is too many committees etc… with people just interested in offering opinions on why this cannot be done and why that cannot be done and commanding serious sums on money for solving very little. There is no focus on solving problems because most of these people sitting around a table will not be 'told what to do' as they hold an attitude that 'I'm paid €250,000 per year and you won't dictate to me how to run my department.

Sorry for dragging this off topic, I was barely affected by the storm - however if I were in Galway or other areas badly affected I'd be as angry as hell.

The contention that this is was a once in 60/80 year event does not stand up to scrutiny. Credit to @sryanbruen for the below table comparing this to previous storms. Unfortunately we do not have comparable data for Mace head, but looking at the sites where we do, Eowyn was not a once in a century event as some are claiming. My eye is particularly drawn to Claremorris below. There were multiple storms in the 90's with worse conditions in the area, but none with the level of impact to utilities

I fear a lot of people are going to get screwed over by their insurance providers when the dust settles.

That's ok then. Your local masts didn't come down so therefore other masts didn't either 😂

I never said they didn't but adopting the attitude that there is no point in installing backup power is, frankly, just stupid.

That is a complete misconception and misreading of what I am saying.

Villages, towns and cities should be where housing is built, not one-off housing in meandering ribbon development at best, or at the end of boreens at worst.

Keenans of Termonbarry is a great stop for trips to Castlebar, been in it many times.

There is no need for any house in Ireland to be built further than walking distance from a village.

The Dutch are notorious for ribbon development in some parts:

However, on closer inspection, they tend to underground their electricity supply:

I have never experienced a storm like that one in my lifetime. We got it very bad here in east Mayo. Unbelievable amount of damage done. Thankfully nobody got hurt (that I've heard of). My power went at 3am and I was out for 5 days. Some parts of the town got power back after 4 days. Power gone so long, I've lost all the stats from the worst of the storm due to power loss for so long. Some photos of the damage done around here.

The theoretical rationale that more energy in the system results in more extreme events is sound. Weather that theory turns out to be true will only be known in 50 yeas time. So you plan based both on the current known risks of extreme events and the theoretical potential that there could be more

No problem with answers:

1. We can afford hotels for thousands of migrants so should be no problem for our vulnerable elderly
2. MPRN

You make the mistake of setting your baseline at an abnormally high decade for major storms. Also, you will note that the table does not claim to be a list of all storms, just a comparison between Eowyn and some major 20th century storms, with Darwin included. Ophelia is not there. So you could equally claim - 3 major storms in 11 years compared to none between 1975 and 1987 proves that major events are increasing. But I dont claim that

A bit like the weather, this tread went downhill quickly.