Sligo residents see red with orange storm designation by Met Éireann
AS the cleanup in Sligo continues following a double whammy from Storm Isha on Sunday night and slightly less cantankerous cousin Storm Jocelyn on Tuesday, more than 300 customers remained without power in the county as crews tackled the remaining issues in the county yesterday, Wednesday.
Storm Isha roared across the county on Sunday night, in its wake, such was the ferocity of the storm, one question remained on repeat all week: How was Sligo not designated a Red wind alert area when neighbours Donegal and Mayo were?
Met Éireann responded to that with an explanation about wind direction (referencing south westerly winds not impacting as much on Sligo as its neighbours) but locally people - literally in the eye of the storm - shook their heads and remained unconvinced by that explanation.
Coupled with both storms the latter days of last week, Thursday and Friday also proved problematic with snow and ice warnings and ensuing difficulties on minor and major road networks in the county.
Veteran storm watchers in the Weekender newsroom and elsewhere gave an admittedly unscientific view that this was almost as bad as a 1985 storm where BBC forecaster Michael Fish took a lot of heat for his pre storm forecasting, others mentioned Storm Darwin, but Isha, for most of our readers who were in touch with us was the worst, loudest and most violent storm they had witnessed in a very long time.
As early light on Monday revealed, the county, like much of the north west, had taken a hammering.
Hundreds of trees, hedges and shrubs were tossed or ripped from their roots, perhaps one of the most obvious and significant single incidence of damage occurred at the Sligo Southern Hotel where a large section of a copper roof at the hotel was ripped away.
Farm outbuildings were particularly susceptible to the high winds, dozens of farm barns and sheds had their roofs ripped away in part or in full.
Schools and other public/private buildings were closed on Monday, a few staggered their opening to later in the day.
Council crews did heroic work across the county, ESB Networks teams, who had to stand down for a period on Monday as Storm Isha offered a sting in the tail, were inundated with requests to remove damaged power lines from roads and buildings.
On Monday thousands of homes across the county had no power; as the Weekender goes to print this figure is now to hundreds.
The recovery effort for ESB crews was badly hampered also by the arrival of the second storm, Storm Jocelyn, on Tuesday evening. Initially high winds left many fearing for another battering, but it proved a much tamer affair, although winds remained high, with the real fear that property/trees which had been compromised by Storm Isha, would succumb because of a second pummelling just a day later from Jocelyn.
However, largely this has not been the case.
The forecast for today, Thursday, points to much ‘quieter’ weather locally, a real relief to home and business owners who are counting the cost of repairing roofs, fences and replacing trees, shrubs and more.
Officially the forecast for today suggests it will be dull and breezy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, some heavy bursts further west. Sounds perfect!