ENNISCORTHY RED CROSS BRAVE ‘UNREAL’ CONDITIONS IN STORM
WHILE at the height of Storm Emma on Friday, the sight of cars on the road was a rarity, the rugged Landrover Defender of Enniscorthy Red Cross could be seen smashing through the snow and braving treacherous conditions to help those in need. Equipped with a crew of three brave volunteers, carrying shovels in case they had to dig themselves out of snow in certain areas, the jeep was on the road from early morning helping those in need.
One of the things the crew found themselves tasked with was collecting dialysis patients from across the Enniscorthy area and dropping them to the dialysis centre in Wexford before bringing them back home, facing some extremely challenging driving conditions in some places - places were ambulances just couldn’t reach.
‘The conditions are unreal out there,’ said Paddy Redmond on Friday afternoon. ‘We’ve been out since before 7 a.m. and we’re up the walls. At the moment, we’re down at the dialysis centre here in Wexford. We’ve brought three patients here for treatment and we have to get them back home. We’ve also had to rescue people from their homes where they had been snowed in with no power, water or heat.’
Paddy described chaotic conditions on the road and, despite the best efforts of the council to clear them, the snow gathered as quickly as it was taken away.
‘Even on the main road it was awful,’ said Paddy. ‘They had the snow ploughs out, but they’d need to be at it constantly in order to keep it clear. In some places, the snow was up to the ditches. We went places that you wouldn’t get in with a tractor!’
With all the ferrying people about and the mileage covered by the crew’s trusty Defender, a problem which then arose was fuel.
‘We had another problem then,’ said Paddy. ‘We needed fuel. Thankfully, Furlongs came and opened up for us and we were able to fill up and keep going. In total I think we spent over €300 on petrol between Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon.’
In total, the crew responded to 23 call outs which included one medical emergency and one fall which required transport to Wexford General Hospital, 16 transports to the dialysis unit, 4 transports of key nursing staff to Wexford General Hospital and the transport of a fracture patient to Waterford University Hospital.
By Sunday, the roads had begun to clear and traffic began to move a little more freely on the roads, giving the volunteer crew of Paddy, Bruce Lett and Tom Shortt, along with Catriona Whelan and Sally Flynn, some time to catch a breath and reflect on what had been an exhausting couple of days which saw them put in a total in excess of 50 hours service.
‘The real star of the show was the ambulance,’ smiled Paddy. ‘It’s an old army Defender and people laughed at me when we bought it. We pumped a lot of money into doing it out to our own specifications and now there’s nowhere it won’t go. We passed all types of vehicles on the road.’
Paddy says that the level of co-operation over the past few days has been unbelievable.
‘Everyone put in a great effort,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day, we were just there to assist. There’s no statutory body could have dealt with what we as a county have dealt with in the last few days. We had great support from the gardaí and people locally any time we were having trouble, a call would be made and we’d have someone out with a tractor or a digger to help us out. The amount of co-operation and help was amazing.’
While the crew were up the walls, there were quite a few calls that they couldn’t make as once a ‘999’ call goes in, it’s up to HSE staff to prioritise certain cases and assign the Red Cross to help out. The difference that Paddy, Bruce and Tom (and of course the Defender!) made out there at the peak of the storm cannot be overstated though and it is heartening to see just how far local volunteers will go to help people in the local community.
While on Sunday night, Paddy was able to take a moment to reflect, he was well aware of the fact that it could be about to get busy once again if the River Slaney continues to rise and bursts its banks.
‘The problem is there’s a lot of hard packed ice and snow covering the drains,’ he said. ‘That means that the water can’t run off into the drains and there’ll be a lot of it coming down from the Shannon and the Ross Road. Then melting snow in Wicklow is always an issue as well. Hopefully it won’t be too bad, but we’re on standby here at the moment. I have the jeep outside the gate and the lads are at the end of the phone and we’re ready to go if we’re needed again. If we get a call and the HSE think we can do it, we’ll get there.’
If you’d like to volunteer to the Enniscorthy Red Cross, or help
WE SPENT OVER €300 ON PETROL BETWEEN THURSDAY EVENING AND SUNDAY AFTERNOON
out with the fundraising they are currently doing towards a new ambulance, you can get in touch with them via the Enniscorthy Red Cross Unit Facebook page.