Ophelia aftershock
Enniscorthy and district coming to terms with storm’s impact
THE CLEAN-UP was well under ay last week in the wake of one of the worst storms to batter the country in over 80 years. While council crews were praised for their speedy reactions in clearing fallen trees from roads across the district, some people were left without power for days on end and some schools were also forced to remain closed due to a lack of power.
Yesterday (Monday) the ESB, who obtained the help of electrical workers from the UK and France to get people back up and running, reported that there were still around 400 customers left without power across Co. Wexford, but they hoped to have everyone back online by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, Davidstown- Courtnacuddy GAA Club is among the organisations counting the cost of Hurricane Ophelia, having lost the roof of the clubhouse to the storm.
They now start the difficult task of attempting to get back up and running by January, with it looking likely that the club will likely have to start from scratch on a new clubhouse.
THE effects of Hurricane Ophelia were still all too evident over the course of last week as the cleanup operation got underway across the district.
Wexford County Council acted quickly to remove fallen trees from roads around the district, however, storm debris was still scattered across the roads. ESB workers, assisted by colleagues from the UK and France, were working around the clock last week to retore power across the county, however, many parts of the Enniscorthy District were without power well into last week and in some cases, it hadn’t even been restored over the weekend, meaning people were left without electricity for a full week. While 10,000 ESB customers around the county were still said to have been waiting on the power to return on Friday, this number was reduced to 400 by yesterday (Monday) morning and the ESB were hopeful that everyone would be back up and running by the end of the day.
Wexford County Council were praised for their quick actions in the wake of the storm and a team of 37 workers were out straight away to deal with road blockages, debris and power outages affecting water services. According to figures provided by District Manager Liz Hore, over 70 road blockages were reported in the Enniscorthy District. By 10 p.m. on the night of the storm, road crews had already cleared all national and regional roads using JCBs to assist. By Tuesday the majority of the roads were clear with only four roads remaining to be unblocked on Wednesday.
Similarly, all water supply disruption caused by power outage was said to have been dealt with by Wednesday afternoon, however, as of Friday, two waste water plants remained affected at Ballymurn and Rathnure.
‘There was a great response from the roads and water services staff,’ said Ms Hore. ‘They made themselves available right throughout the event and at all times necessary. The ESB targetting of main population centres of Enniscorthy, Castlebridge and Bunclody was a big help.’
While Enniscorthy Fire Service had a full crew on standby during the worst of Storm Ophelia, thankfully the day passed without major incident for them. They were, however called to a minor
incident on Monday evening.
‘We were called out to a chimney fire near Clonroche while the storm was in full flow,’ said a spokesman for the Fire Service. ‘A tree was blocking the road up to the house, but thankfully it was only about fifty yards away so we were able to deal with it. It wasn’t too bad really. We’ve dealt with worse.’
One building that bore the full brunt of Storm Ophelia was Davidstown Cournacuddy GAA club which saw its roof ripped off by the roaring winds.
‘We’re still waiting on an engineer’s report,’ said Club Secretary Majella Dunne. ‘It’s looking like we’ll be needing a full roof at least. There was significant water damage inside too and the floors will have to be completely replaced. We can’t do anything to protect it from the rain at the minute either, because the building is unsafe. It’s looking like we’ll just be left with four walls.’
‘In a way we were lucky enough,’ Majella continued. ‘All activity had finished for the season, but we will need to be up and running again in January, so we’ll probably have to bring in portacabins or something. We’ll have to do a lot of fundraising. It’s unfortunate because we were in a great position. We had just bought a new field without getting into any debt, but this is going to set us back a lot.’