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Three reported dead in Storm Ophelia as Irish PM urges people to stay indoors Three reported dead in Storm Ophelia as Irish PM urges people to stay indoors
(about 3 hours later)
Three people have died in Ireland in accidents relating to Storm Ophelia as 100mph winds started to batter Ireland and Britain. Three people have been killed in Ireland as Storm Ophelia hit Britain and Ireland with winds of up to 100mph.
As Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar described the impact of Ophelia as a “national emergency”, the country’s schools and colleges were closed and the transport system was virtually at a standstill. Varadkar, appealing to people to remain indoors for their own safety, said it was the worst storm to hit Ireland in 50 years. The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, described Ophelia’s impact as a “national emergency” that had forced the closure of the country’s schools and colleges and brought its transport network to a standstill on Monday.
With the bad weather spreading northeast across Ireland and parts of the UK, there were reports on Monday afternoon that one person was killed in the storm in an incident in County Louth, close to the border with Northern Ireland. Varadkar said it was the worst storm to hit Ireland in 50 years and appealed to people to stay indoors. The chairman of Ireland’s National Emergency Co-ordination group, Sean Hogan, added his voice to Varadkar’s saying: “These gusts are life-threatening. Do not be out there.”
Earlier, a woman in her 70s was killed in the Republic when a tree fell on her car near the village of Aglish in Waterford. And a man in his 30s died in a chainsaw accident in Cahir, County Tipperary, after trying to remove a tree brought down by the storm, police said. Earlier a man in his 30s died in a chainsaw accident in Cahir, County Tipperary, after trying to remove a tree brought down by the storm, Irish police said. A woman in her 70s was killed when a tree fell on her car in Co Waterford in south-east Ireland. The third death happened at around 2.45pm after a tree fell on a car a man was driving in Ravensdale, outside Dundalk in Co Louth.
Referring to Storm Debbie in 1961, Leo Varadkar said: “The last time we had a storm this severe, 11 lives were lost, so safety is our number one priority.” Referring to Hurricane Debbie in 1961, Varadkar said: “The last time we had a storm this severe, 11 lives were lost, so safety is our number one priority.”
Speaking before an emergency meeting of the government in Dublin, he called on people to stay at home, stressing that the red weather warning applied to all cities and counties across Ireland. Ahead of her trip to Brussels for dinner with EU leaders on Monday night, Theresa May telephoned the taoiseach to offer her sympathy over the deaths caused by the storm.
Varadkar said the danger to the public would not end once the storm had passed, because there would be fallen trees and felled power lines across the country. “On Storm Ophelia, the prime minister expressed her sympathies for the loss of life and said the UK government stood ready to provide any support if requested,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“Staff are ready to come in from Northern Ireland and Britain to assist in the coming days in restoring power. We can only restore the power lines when it is safe to do so,” he said. The storm also prevented Bill Clinton visiting Belfast for a crucial round of talks with local politicians.
The Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, speaking from his native Cork, one of the worst-affected parts of the country, said: “This is a weather event the likes of which we have never seen before.” The taoiseach’s Cabinet colleague, foreign minister Simon Coveney, speaking from his native Cork, which was one of the hardest hit parts of the country, said: “This is a weather event the likes of which we have never seen before.”
Coveney said the government had been briefed that the strong winds would whip up waves up to 40ft (12 metres) high and “taller than a double-decker bus”. Coveney said that the government had been briefed that the strong winds would whip up waves on the Irish coastline that were of up to 12 metres high and in some cases “taller than a double-decker bus”.
Met Éireann, the Irish weather service, said Ireland would bear the brunt of Ophelia for three to four hours on Monday. As Ophelia struck land around 10am, there were power outages due to felled power lines in the south and south-west of the country. Power cuts continued throughout the day and by mid-afternoon 360,00 customers in the Republic were without electricity. The Republic’s Electricity Supply Board warned of further power outages throughout the night.
As the storm struck at about 10am, there were outages due to felled power lines in the south and south-west of the country. By lunchtime, about 100,000 customers were without power, according to the electricity supply board. More than 140 flights from Irish airports were cancelled and by 10am, all of the Dublin Bus routes in the capital were shut down. The city’s Luas tram system was also closed over fears for public safety. Every creche, school, third level college and university in the Irish Republic was also closed.
More than 140 flights from Irish airports were cancelled and by 10am, all Dublin Bus routes in the capital were shut down. The city’s Luas tram system was also closed over safety fears. Every creche, school, college and university in Ireland was closed. Ireland’s education minister Richard Bruton announced that all schools and colleges would remain closed on Tuesday. Later, the Department of Education in Northern Ireland said that all its schools would also not open on Tuesday.
All trains out of Dublin’s Heuston station, which runs rail connections to the south and west of Ireland, have been cancelled. Those caught up in the storm on Ireland’s western seaboard described how violent winds were pounding the coastline.
Counties such as Clare, Cork and Kerry have so far suffered the worst effects of Ophelia. In West Cork, a funeral was postponed due to safety fears. Kathryn Johnston drove 260 miles on Monday from Ballymena in Northern Ireland to Galway, in Ireland, for her daughter Alice’s graduation. The National University of Ireland Galway however shut down due to the storm and the graduation ceremony was cancelled. Johnston and her daughter were holed up inside the Jurys Inn hotel close to the river Corrib in the city.
Kathryn Johnston had travelled from Ballymena in Northern Ireland to Galway on Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard to attend her daughter Alice’s graduation. The storm led to the closure of the National University of Ireland Galway on Monday and the cancellation of the graduation ceremony. With the front entrance to the hotel blocked with sandbags by the afternoon to prevent flooding, Johnston described how even birds were “being blown away” in the sky by the violent winds over Galway Bay.
“It’s getting quite rough, the place around Spanish Arch was very windy and some of the businesses have floodgates up. Yet there are loads of tourists still milling about, which is bizarre,” she said. She said that when you went to the automatic doors of the hotel “a blast of wind and rain just hits you in the face full on”.
Johnston said she and her daughter were angry that they had made the 260-mile trip only to find out at 7.30pm on Sunday that the graduation ceremony had been postponed. Meanwhile, passengers on an Aer Lingus flight from Lisbon to Dublin praised the skill of an Irish pilot who guided their plane safely into land in the middle of the storm.
In Northern Ireland, Bill Clinton’s visit to Belfast was cancelled because of the storm. The former US president was due to meet political parties represented in the Stormont parliament to urge them to find a way to restore the power-sharing government. Paulo Nunes Santos contacted the Guardian from the plane after it landed in Dublin. He said he wanted to praise the female pilot who had guided flight EI483 from Lisbon safely home.
All schools, colleges and universities in Northern Ireland have also been closed for the day. The lord chief justice of Northern Ireland, Sir Declan Morgan, ordered the closure of all courts by lunchtime. Santos, originally from Portugal but who has lived in Dublin for 15 years, said: “I’ve been in hundreds, if not thousands of flights, but never experienced this level of turbulence.
The Met Office in Belfast warned that the storm will strike Northern Ireland from midday to almost midnight. It issued an amber warning, meaning Ophelia poses a risk to life. “We only started feeling it more or less as we started approaching via Cork. The pilot was great. The plane shook like mad and the approach to the runway was the worst I have experienced. But the pilot, she was brilliant. Oddly there was no panic among the passengers. Everyone clapped and applauded the pilot, we were told her name is Niamh Jennings. You could feel the huge sense of relief in the plane.”
The storm is expected to move across to Wales, northern England and Scotland through Monday. By mid afternoon Ophelia was hammering Northern Ireland with gusts of winds of up to 80mph. By a quarter to five around 18,000 homes in Northern Ireland were without power due to falling trees knocking down power lines.
High winds are expected across the region, while a yellow warning is in place for much of Wales, Scotland, north-east England, north-west England, south-west England and the West Midlands. A tree had also fallen onto the railway line at Lambeg, outside Belfast, disrupting one of the busiest rail links in the region.
Parts of Scotland and Wales have also been upgraded to amber. Roads in Belfast were closed due to flying debris and the newest bridge over the Foyle river in Derry was also closed.
Around 200 properties in Wales suffered power cuts, a number of schools closed early and the Cleddau Bridge was shut to high-sided vehicles, Pembrokeshire county council said. Former US president Clinton was due to meet political parties represented in Stormont when he was to urge them to find a deal to restore the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.
Flood warnings are also in place along the Pembrokeshire coast, parts of west Scotland, north-west England and Cornwall. There had been hopes that Clinton could have held talks with the parties on Tuesday but this was later cancelled.
Planes were grounded at Manchester airport, with 20 flights cancelled and passengers warned to check ahead before travelling to the airport. The Stormont parliament building itself suffered in the storm. The home of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has not functioned for ten months due to the breakdown of power sharing, suffered an electrical outage.