Families in flight from Red storm
MISERY has piled upon misery for staycationers who couldn’t take a break in the sun this year, as a Red Alert weather warning left families fleeing the coast to escape Storm Ellen.
One caravan and camping park owner in Clonakilty, Co. Cork, said: ‘I just hope we are left standing tomorrow.’
And the Road Safety Authority urged extreme caution, saying Ellen would batter the country at least until midnight tonight.
Met Éireann warned of a ‘violent Storm Force 11’.
STAYCATIONING families scrambled for shelter yesterday – abandoning caravan parks and camping grounds in droves, ahead of the arrival of Storm Ellen.
A very rare Red Warning – the highest alert – was issued for Cork yesterday as holidaymakers fled inland and businesses were left with ‘a disaster’ at the end of the tourist season.
For struggling holidaymakers already coping with Covid-19, it was the perfect storm.
Inland hotels and B&Bs were besieged by holidaymakers forced to abandon their coastal holiday retreats in search of shelter.
Met Éireann warned everyone in the Red Alert area to stay indoors from 8pm last night.
A storm surge, spring tides and onshore winds may trigger coastal flooding in the coming days and an Orange Warning was issued to Galway, Mayo, Clare, Kerry, Limerick and Waterford for last night and this morning.
Tramore pier in Waterford was shut from 4pm yesterday, while work crews in Cork stockpiled sandbags in preparation for the flooding. Sailing crews planning to spend the night in their yachts on the coast had to moor their boats and rush for nearby accommodation. The owner of the Fastnet House guesthouse in Baltimore, west Cork, told how a group of four sailors came knocking on their door after they were forced to evacuate their yacht. And two other sailors who came half an hour later had to be turned away.
‘One man who was due to drive down from Dublin cancelled because of the storm so luckily we were able to accommodate one group of sailors, a woman and three men,’ said owner, Sandra Carthy, who runs the bed and breakfast with her husband Ronnie. ‘Two of the men had to share a double bed and we couldn’t take any more.’
Ronnie was last night tying down anything moveable in the garden before the storm struck.
A manager at Sextons Caravan & Camping Park in Clonakilty said they cancelled every booking and advised tourists to leave.
Tourists at the caravan park fled back as far as Monaghan and Armagh before the storm hit Co. Cork, while the Government advised all campers along the southern coast to evacuate.
‘It’s safety first. I just hope we are standing tomorrow,’ the manager said.
The park’s staff were busy moving all the caravans into an enclosed yard yesterday as the storm approached.
‘We had some tourists here from Monaghan and Armagh. They have now packed up and gone home. It looks like the stormy weather will be with us until Friday morning. It’s a disaster for businesses,’ she added. ‘The area had been so busy with families on lockdown enjoying a staycation. I had never seen so many people in west Cork, it was mad. There was horrendous flooding on Friday and Saturday of last week in some parts, which didn’t help those areas either. It really has been a year like no other.’
Rianne Smith, who runs Aquaventures diving school and the Stone House bed and breakfast in Baltimore, said that she has sailed her own yacht out of the local harbour and up the Ilen river to escape the storm.
‘We also had cancellations because some of our guests were due to go whale watching with us but I don’t think we will have any whale watching for the rest of the week because of the weather,’ she said. Ms Smith said that, despite the dozens of sailing boats that use Baltimore harbour, the town doesn’t have a breakwater.
‘That has been an ongoing problem, especially when there is a storm of this size,’ she said.
Bernadette O’Driscoll, who owns The Corner House bed and breakfast nearby, said: ‘Due to Covid, they have been using outdoor seating but they had to cancel because of the storm and it comes right at the end of the tourist season.’
Inland, the Blarney Caravan and Camping Park was busy with storm proofing yesterday evening.
‘Everyone in tents have moved on because of the storm. Now we are just battening down hatches,’ a manager said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said: ‘People should take Storm Ellen seriously – if you’re in a campsite or caravan park, go home or prepare appropriately.’
The Road Safety Authority appealed for caution as the effects were expected to be felt until midnight tonight.
A Met Éireann spokeswoman told of winds reaching ‘violent Storm Force 11’ on coasts from Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford to Valentia in Co. Kerry to Slyne Head in Co. Galway.
‘Unseasonably wet and very windy weather is expected from early Wednesday night until later Friday, with further rainfall and wind warnings likely,’ she said. ‘Strong winds at times may result in unsafe conditions and some disruption, especially over high ground, lakes and sea areas. There is also a risk of flooding.’
Met Éireann meteorologist Gerry Murphy warned that the Storm Ellen weather front was moving quickly yesterday.
‘It’s going to get very bad, potentially in Cork in the sense that this depression is moving up and it’s spinning quite rapidly. It’s going to generate very strong winds,’ he told C103’s Cork Today Show. ‘It all depends on the exact track of the storm but currently, the track is such that Cork will get the heaviest hit from that storm.’
Mr Murphy said there is a possibility that the Red Alert could extend to the east of Waterford.
‘I just hope we are standing tomorrow’ ‘It’s going to get very bad’