Freak storm hits Ireland, three dead

DUBLIN: Ireland was hit by what officials called an “unprecedented storm” on Monday that left three people dead, more than 300,000 people without power and shut down schools as well as government offices.

A police spokesman said one woman in her 50s was killed outside the village of Aglish, near the south coast, when a tree fell on her car. A female passenger in her 70s suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

One man died in an accident while he was clearing a fallen tree with a chainsaw near the town of Cahir, 35km further inland.

The third victim was a man killed on the roads by a falling tree north of Dundalk in the northeast, close to the border with Northern Ireland, police said in a statement.

Ophelia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic Ocean and the furthest north since 1939, was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but nonetheless wrought havoc.

“However, it will still bring violent and destructive winds for a time,” Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, said on Monday.

Flooding was also expected “due to either heavy thundery downpours or storm surges in coastal areas”, the service said after issuing a red alert for the whole country.

Winds reached 191kph at Fastnet Rock, Ireland’s southernmost point, while the strongest winds recorded onshore were 156kph at the entrance to Cork Harbour in the southwest.

Seventeen millimetres of rain fell at Valentia on the southwest coast, including 9ml in one hour.

Dublin Airport scrapped 180 flights while Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history.

Meanwhile, several services to and from Shannon, the third-biggest airport, were also grounded. – AFP