Freak Irish storm kills three
IRELAND/BRITAIN: The sky turned red yesterday as Storm Ophelia claimed three lives in Ireland, with 160kmh winds dragging warm air and dust up from the Sahara and debris from wildfires in southern Europe.
A driver and a passenger were killed by falling trees in Ireland as winds lashed the country. A third person was killed in a chainsaw accident.
Thousands of passengers had their flights cancelled as severe winds grounded planes across the UK, exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 killed 18 people. Former United States president Bill Clinton was forced to postpone a planned intervention in Northern Ireland’s political stalemate after his flight was cancelled.
The storm also brought warm air from southern Europe which broke the temperature record for October 16, reaching 23.5 degrees Celsius in Manston, Kent.
Ophelia, which began 1500km off the coast of the Azores a week ago, is the largest hurricane recorded so far east in the Atlantic and the furthest north since 1939.
It was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but still wrought havoc, knocking down power lines and whipping up 10m waves.
Claire O’Neill, a nurse in her mid-50s, was killed outside Aglish, a village in County Waterford, when a tree fell onto her car. Her female passenger, in her 70s, was injured and taken to hospital.
Michael Pyke, 31, died in a chainsaw accident in Cahir, County Tipperary. It is understood he was attempting to clear a tree downed by the violent winds that was blocking a road when he was hit by the branch of another tree.
A third person, Fintan Goss, who was in his 30s, died after a tree fell on a car in Ravensdale, County Louth.
About 360,000 homes and businesses in the Republic of Ireland were left without power. Officials closed schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic and they will remain shut today.
Ireland’s National Emergency Co-ordination Group warned that the storm was ‘‘unprecedented with serious life-threatening conditions’’.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May had told Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, that the gov- ernment ‘‘stood ready to provide any support’’.
The Lord Chief Justice advised the judiciary in Northern Ireland to cease all court hearings. All government buildings providing nonessential services closed early and non-essential civil servants sent home.
More than 130 flights were cancelled in the UK, mainly affecting routes to Ireland and the Isle of Man. Dublin and Shannon airports cancelled 150 flights.
Several flights to UK airports were forced to make precautionary landings and divert after reports of ‘‘smoke smells’’ in the cabin.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport said that the smells appeared to be connected with ‘‘atmospheric conditions’’, caused by smoke picked up by the storm as it passed over wildfires in Spain and Portugal.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association called for regulators to ensure the development of effective cabin air filters onboard aircraft.
Gusts of 150kmh were recorded in Aberdaron, west Wales, as flood warnings were put in place in Pembrokeshire, west Scotland, northwest England, Cornwall and Dorset.
About 200 properties in Wales suffered power cuts.
The eye of the storm is expected to cross Wales, northern England and Scotland today. High winds are expected and a yellow warning is in place for much of the UK. Parts of Scotland and Wales have been upgraded to amber.
– The Times