Freak storm slams Ireland

IRELAND was hit by an “unprecedented storm” yesterday that left two people dead and 120 000 homes and businesses without power, and closed all schools in the country.

A police spokesman said a woman in her 50s was killed near the village of Aglish, near the south coast, by a tree falling on her car.

“A female passenger, in her 70s, was injured and is in Waterford hospital,” he said.

The police said a man had also died in an accident while clearing a fallen tree with a chainsaw near the town of Cahir in the south.

Ophelia, the largest 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.

The violent and destructive winds that hit the south and west would rapidly extend to the rest of the country, the Met Eireann national weather service said. Flooding was also expected.

“There is a danger to life and property,” the agency said after issuing a red alert for the whole country.

Wind speeds reached 176km/h at Fastnet Rock, Ireland’s southernmost point, while the fastest speeds recorded onshore were 156km/h at Cork harbour in the southwest.

Dublin Airport scrapped 135 flights, Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history, and several services to and from third-largest airport Shannon were grounded.

“Stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

“I don’t want anyone to think that this is anything other than a national emergency and a red alert.”

The education ministry said all schools, colleges and other education institutions were closed yesterday, after official advice.

Government offices were also closed. The military was deployed to areas forecast to be worst affected and is on standby.

Ireland’s top football team Cork City were hit when their stadium roof collapsed.

The eye of the storm is forecast to track across Northern Ireland and then Scotland.

It will weaken as it goes, but gusts are expected to reach 129km/h in the UK. Britain’s Met Office issued amber warnings for Northern Ireland, Wales and southern Scotland.

The storm came 30 years to the day after the Great Storm, which ravaged southern England in the early hours of October 16 1987, leaving 18 people dead.

Ophelia is the 15th named storm of the 2017 Atlantic season. – AFP